Artificial Intelligence (AI)-generated art is popping up just about everywhere now, from commercial marketing content to creative illustrations and everything in between. This is especially true thanks to AI systems like DALL-E and Midjourney, which seamlessly produce original images based on users’ text prompts. In this relatively new world, there may be questions about ownership for artwork derived from AI tools. Without further ado, please continue reading to learn whether you own the rights to the art you asked AI to generate and how an experienced New Jersey copyright lawyer at The Ingber Law Firm can help you understand the legal implications surrounding this concept.
Do I have ownership rights over art generated by AI?
First of all, you must understand that the United States Copyright Law generally only protects art and other works created by human authors. Of note, the necessity of human authorship was reinforced in a recent 2025 ruling, Thaler v. Perlmutter. This is to say that the U.S. Copyright Office has repeatedly rejected registration petitions for art produced solely by an AI tool and in the absence of human creative input.
With this, though, you must understand there is a critical difference between AI-generated and AI-assisted works. You may have an AI-assisted work if you contributed a unique and creative direction in the original prompt, substantially edited the final generated output, or combined human elements of art equally or fairly with the AI art. Given these extenuating circumstances, the Office may more closely examine your registration application.
What happens if my AI art is closely similar to an original artwork?
Say you successfully argued on behalf of your AI-assisted art, and you receive an official registration from the U.S. Copyright Office. While you may assume you are now in the clear to sell or license this AI art, a third party may eventually come forward and claim that it too closely resembles their copyrighted work.
You may have made your best efforts to make your prompt as unique as possible and modify or enhance the generated output. Even still, AI tools are not perfect, and even without copying, they may nearly mimic distinctive styles, character designs, logos, compositions, or other protected imagery, which can quickly lead to a liability issue.
In an incident of accidental copyright infringement, you should know that you, as the user who made the prompt and went forward with distributing the work, rather than the AI company that generated the work, may bear legal liability. Should you enter litigated case proceedings, the court may look at whether the expression of the original work was significantly copied or replicated.
You should not let the pressure of following the AI trend and its legal ramifications rest solely on your shoulders. Please allow a skilled Essex County, New Jersey intellectual property lawyer from The Ingber Law Firm to assist you with understanding your ownership rights in the matter. We look forward to helping you with your artwork. Give us a call today.