IP Type / Scenario
You used AI to create it
You fed your IP into AI
Someone else's AI infringed yours
How to register & defend
CopyrightWriting · Art · Code · Designs
Copyright × You used AI to create it
Document the human, register what's yours
What to do
- Keep a "creative audit trail": prompts, iterations, the changes you made by hand
- Identify the parts of the work where YOU made meaningful creative decisions — those are copyrightable
- When registering, disclose AI-generated material honestly on the application
- Don't claim authorship over portions that came out of the model unchanged
Watch out for
- Prompting alone is not authorship — even very detailed prompts
- If most of the work is AI-generated, the registration may be denied or limited
- Misrepresenting AI use on a registration can invalidate the entire copyright
- Style is not protectable; specific expression is
Current as of May 2026
The Supreme Court denied cert in Thaler v. Perlmutter (March 2026), confirming the human-authorship requirement. The USCO's January 2025 report lays out exactly how to register AI-assisted works.
Copyright × You fed your IP into AI
Read the terms before you upload
What to do
- Check whether your inputs become training data — opt out where the option exists
- Use enterprise or API tiers with explicit no-training, no-retention guarantees for sensitive work
- Don't upload third-party copyrighted material you don't have rights to
- For client work, get written confirmation on what tier and what data policies apply
Watch out for
- Free consumer tiers often retain inputs and may use them for training
- Browser extensions and plugins may have different data policies than the core product
- "We don't train on your data" is not the same as "we don't retain your data"
- Confidential client material in a public AI tool is a malpractice and privilege risk
Practical reality
Major providers (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google) now offer enterprise tiers with strong data protections. The cheap path almost always trades privacy for price.
Copyright × Someone else's AI infringed yours
Document the output, then send notice
What to do
- Capture screenshots, prompts that produce the infringement, dates, and URLs
- Send DMCA takedowns to platforms hosting the infringing outputs
- Check for class actions you may be entitled to join (authors, news, music, photographers)
- If commercial use is at scale, talk to counsel about direct claims against the model provider
Watch out for
- Generic style mimicry is not infringement — substantial similarity is the test
- Outputs may be transient; capture them immediately
- Class action settlements have opt-out windows; missing them limits future claims
- Foreign AI providers may be hard to reach through US courts
Where the law stands
Bartz v. Anthropic (settled, $1.5B) confirmed that piracy of training data is actionable. Training itself is being treated as fair use by some courts. NYT v. OpenAI is heading toward summary judgment.
Copyright × How to register & defend
Register early, disclose AI honestly
What to do
- Register with the US Copyright Office at copyright.gov ($45–$65 per work)
- Register BEFORE infringement happens (or within 3 months of publication) to get statutory damages
- For high-value works, register as soon as the work is fixed in tangible form
- Keep the deposit copy and registration certificate together
Watch out for
- Without registration, you cannot file a US infringement suit at all
- Without pre-infringement registration, you're limited to actual damages — often tiny
- "Poor man's copyright" (mailing yourself a copy) is a myth and does nothing
- Group registrations exist for photos, articles, and unpublished works
The cost-benefit math
$65 to register vs. up to $150,000 per work in statutory damages. The single highest ROI legal step most creators never take.
TrademarkNames · Logos · Taglines
Trademark × You used AI to create it
Clear it before you commit
What to do
- Run a USPTO TESS search on any AI-generated brand name or tagline
- Check common-law uses (Google, social media, domain registrars)
- For logos, do a reverse image search — AI may have produced something close to an existing mark
- Document your first use in commerce with dated evidence
Watch out for
- AI models love generating obvious-sounding names that are already taken
- Logos generated from prompts referencing famous brands often produce knockoffs
- Trademark is about use in commerce, not who made it — an AI-generated logo can be a trademark
- Clearance is jurisdictional; an open name in the US may be taken elsewhere
Good news
Unlike copyright, trademark protection doesn't care that AI helped make the logo. What matters is whether you use it in commerce and whether it's distinctive enough.
Trademark × You fed your IP into AI
Don't leak your brand guidelines
What to do
- Keep unreleased brand names, logos, and strategy docs out of public AI tools
- For brand work with AI, use enterprise tiers with confidentiality terms
- If you're using AI to brainstorm names, treat the chat history as discoverable
- Mark sensitive uploads as confidential where the platform allows
Watch out for
- Public chats can sometimes be surfaced by other users via prompt injection
- Brand confidentiality before launch is what gives you first-mover advantage
- Investor and acquirer diligence increasingly asks about AI tool usage
Trademark × Someone else's AI infringed yours
AI doesn't immunize the user
What to do
- Document the use: where, when, in what context, generating what consumer impression
- Send a cease and desist; AI generation doesn't change the infringement analysis
- For platform-hosted infringement (Etsy, Amazon, etc.), use their trademark complaint process
- If the infringer claims "the AI did it," that's not a defense — they used it in commerce
Watch out for
- The test is consumer confusion, not "did someone copy the logo"
- AI-generated knockoffs at scale (print-on-demand sites) may require platform-level enforcement
- International infringers are hard to reach without registration in that country
Trademark × How to register & defend
File federally, monitor relentlessly
What to do
- File with USPTO ($350–$450 per class) — most marks need 1-3 classes
- Use ® only after federal registration; ™ anytime as a common-law claim
- Set up a USPTO watch service or check the gazette regularly
- Renew at 5 years (Section 8) and every 10 years after that
Watch out for
- USPTO won't enforce for you — you have to monitor and act
- Letting infringement slide can weaken your mark over time
- Generic or descriptive marks won't get registered no matter how much you want them
- International protection requires separate filings (Madrid Protocol streamlines this)
For founders
Trademark filing is the single highest-leverage early legal step. Cheap, lasts forever if maintained, and locks down your brand against competitors and squatters.
PatentInventions · Methods · Designs
Patent × You used AI to create it
Humans must invent — and you must say so
What to do
- Document the human inventor's "significant contribution" to each claim
- Keep AI prompts, outputs, and the human's modifications in your invention notebook
- When filing, name only human inventors — AI tools are not inventors
- For AI-assisted inventions, prepare for examiner questions about inventorship
Watch out for
- Naming an AI as inventor will get your application rejected (Thaler v. Vidal)
- Inventorship errors can invalidate an issued patent later
- Routine AI use (like a CAD tool) is different from AI conceiving the invention
- The USPTO's 2024 guidance on AI-assisted inventions is what to follow
The line
AI as a tool: fine, patentable. AI as the inventor: not patentable. The harder cases are in the middle — that's where careful documentation matters most.
Patent × You fed your IP into AI
File first. Type later.
What to do
- File a provisional patent BEFORE describing the invention to any public AI tool
- For confidential brainstorming with AI, use enterprise tiers with no-training agreements
- Document what was already on file before any AI interaction
- Treat AI chat logs as potential discoverable material in any later dispute
Watch out for
- Public AI input may constitute "publication" — and publication is prior art
- The US has a 12-month grace period; most other countries don't
- You can lose international rights by disclosing in a public AI tool before filing
- Even "private" chats may not be private from the model provider
The single biggest mistake
Founders describing their patentable invention in detail to ChatGPT or Claude before filing anything. Don't.
Patent × Someone else's AI infringed yours
The product, not the prompt, infringes
What to do
- Identify the actual making, using, or selling — that's what's actionable
- If a product on the market practices your claims, you have a case regardless of how it was designed
- Establish your priority date (filing date) early in any dispute
- Consider whether the AI tool itself contributes to infringement (rare, but possible)
Watch out for
- Patent infringement is about practicing the claims, not about describing them
- An AI generating a description of your invention is generally not direct infringement
- The user who builds and sells the product is the one infringing
- Patent litigation is expensive — make sure the economics work
Patent × How to register & defend
Provisional first, then play your year
What to do
- File a provisional patent application ($65–$320 USPTO fee, plus attorney time)
- You have 12 months from the provisional to file a non-provisional utility patent
- Use the year wisely — refine claims, find prior art, decide if international is worth it
- For design patents (the look of a product), the process is faster and cheaper
Watch out for
- Utility patents typically run $10,000–$25,000+ all-in with attorney
- The provisional doesn't get examined — it's a placeholder for your priority date
- International filing within 12 months via PCT preserves global rights
- If you miss the 12-month window without filing the full application, you start over
For most software founders
Patents are not always the right move for early-stage software companies. Copyright + trade secret + trademark often does more for less. Get advice before assuming patents are necessary.
Trade SecretAlgorithms · Data · Processes · Prompts
Trade Secret × You used AI to create it
Secrets only stay secrets if you protect them
What to do
- Identify what's genuinely secret — proprietary prompts, fine-tuned models, training data, processes
- Put NDAs in place for anyone who sees it (employees, contractors, advisors)
- Use access controls — not everyone needs the keys
- Mark sensitive material as confidential and document the protection measures
Watch out for
- "It's secret because I haven't told anyone" is not enough — you need documented effort
- Sharing with vendors without an NDA can destroy trade secret status
- Departing employees taking AI prompts and processes is the #1 trade secret leak
Trade Secret × You fed your IP into AI
The single highest-risk thing on this matrix
What to do
- Only use enterprise tiers with explicit no-training, no-retention, and confidentiality terms
- Get data residency and third-party access terms in writing
- Review API agreements line by line for anything touching real proprietary material
- For truly sensitive work, run models locally or on private cloud
Watch out for
- Disclosure to a third party (the AI provider) without confidentiality can extinguish trade secret status
- Free and consumer tiers almost always retain inputs in some form
- Model memorization means your data can leak back through other users' prompts
- Once a trade secret is exposed, it's gone — you can't put it back
Bright line
Don't paste your secret sauce into ChatGPT to ask for feedback. Use enterprise tools, or use redacted summaries that don't reveal the secret.
Trade Secret × Someone else's AI infringed yours
Speed matters — secrets don't recover
What to do
- Document the disclosure path: who, when, what tool, what got exposed
- Act immediately — courts grant preliminary injunctions for trade secret theft
- Federal claims under the Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA) are available
- State Uniform Trade Secrets Act claims add another layer
Watch out for
- Delay can be treated as acquiescence — courts want to see urgency
- You'll need to prove what you did to protect the secret in the first place
- Public exposure (including on social media or in public AI chats) can extinguish secrecy
- Departing-employee cases are the most common trade secret AI fact pattern
Trade Secret × How to register & defend
No registration — just discipline
What to do
- Build a written trade secret program: what's secret, who has access, how it's protected
- NDAs with every employee, contractor, vendor, and advisor
- Mark sensitive documents as confidential consistently
- Exit procedures: return-of-materials, access revocation, exit interviews on confidential obligations
Watch out for
- Trade secrets last as long as they're secret — there's no expiration if you maintain protection
- You'll get cross-examined in any later case about every step you did or didn't take
- Routine sloppiness (no NDAs, broad access, no marking) is a defense killer
The bargain
Trade secrets have no filing fees, no renewal, no expiration. The cost is discipline. If you can run the discipline, this is the cheapest form of IP protection available.
PublicityLikeness · Voice · Identity
Publicity × You used AI to create it
Don't generate real people without consent
What to do
- Get written consent before generating any identifiable real person's likeness or voice
- For your own likeness used in marketing, document the consent clearly
- For employees or talent, include AI/likeness terms in standard agreements
- For commercial use of any voice or face, treat it as a publicity-rights issue from the start
Watch out for
- "In the style of [famous person]" prompts can still trigger publicity claims
- Voice cloning is a particularly active area — even short samples can be enough
- Dead celebrities still have publicity rights in many states (PA, CA, IN are notable)
- Non-celebrity right of publicity is real — your neighbor can sue you too
Publicity × You fed your IP into AI
Your face and voice are training data now
What to do
- Check the AI policies of platforms holding your image and audio (social, podcasts, video)
- Opt out of training data use where the platform allows
- For high-profile commercial use, register distinctive elements as trademarks
- Document your likeness with reference imagery and audio in case you need it later
Watch out for
- Public uploads from years ago may already be in training sets you'll never see
- Voice samples from podcasts and videos are particularly easy to train on
- Some platforms have changed terms retroactively to allow AI training
Publicity × Someone else's AI infringed yours
Deepfakes and digital replicas have remedies
What to do
- Document the misuse: URL, platform, prompt-to-output evidence, commercial context
- Send platform takedowns — most major platforms have AI-likeness reporting
- File right-of-publicity claims in the strongest available jurisdiction
- For sexually explicit deepfakes, criminal remedies are increasingly available in many states
Watch out for
- State laws differ significantly — choose your jurisdiction carefully
- Federal protection (NO FAKES Act and similar proposals) is still emerging
- Anonymous bad actors using AI are hard to identify and serve
- Speed matters — viral spread is hard to claw back
Where this is moving
Federal legislation on digital replicas is gaining traction. The USCO's 2024 report flagged this as the most urgent AI/IP issue. State laws are filling the gap fast.
Publicity × How to register & defend
No registration — but document and federalize
What to do
- For commercial brand-voice or distinctive likeness, layer in federal trademark protection
- Keep records of commercial use of your name and likeness for damages calculations
- For licensed use of your likeness, written agreements with clear AI carve-outs
- If you're talent or a public figure, monitor for unauthorized AI uses regularly
Watch out for
- Publicity rights are state-by-state — there's no federal registration
- Post-mortem rights vary: some states (CA, IN, OK) protect for decades; others not at all
- Standard talent agreements often need updating to address AI uses
- The line between protected commentary/satire and infringement is heavily litigated