The Wild West of IP
As AI disrupts creative industries, copyright law is scrambling to catch up. The rules are different depending on where you live, but some precedents are being set.
US Copyright Office Stance
In the US, the current stance is: "Copyright requires human authorship."
This means a purely AI-generated image cannot be copyrighted. It is effectively public domain. Anyone can take your Midjourney generation and put it on a T-shirt.
However, if there is "significant human input"—for example, you used AI to generate elements, but then extensively composited, painted over, and edited them in Photoshop—the human-created parts of the work are copyrightable. The prompt itself is generally not considered enough human input to warrant copyright.
The Training Data Lawsuits
The other side of the coin is: Did the AI infringe copyright by training on artists' work? Major lawsuits (New York Times vs OpenAI, Artists vs Midjourney) are ongoing. The defense argues "Fair Use"—that the AI is learning patterns, not copying pixels, similar to a human student studying Picasso. The outcome of these cases will define the industry.
EU AI Act
The European Union has passed the comprehensive "AI Act." It focuses more on transparency. It requires companies to disclose if content is AI-generated and requires model builders to respect copyright opt-outs. It's a stricter regulatory environment than the US.
What This Means for You
If you are building a brand assets using AI, be aware that you might not own the IP. For critical logos or mascots, human-made (or heavily human-modified) is still the safest legal route for trademarking.