Monkeys, Holy Spirits, AI—It’s All the Same for the U.S. Copyright Office

Director Ivy Clarice Estoesta was quoted in the article “Monkeys, Holy Spirits, AI—It’s All the Same for the U.S. Copyright Office,” published by Legaltech News. From the article:

“Estoesta outlined a legal phenomenon akin to one door closing and another one opening when it comes to AI-generated art.

‘The one thing I keep thinking about is, if there is no copyright in AI generally, and that’s on the patent side too, I think there’s an absence here of tools in your IP toolkit to protect something generated by AI,’ she said. ‘And the thing I keep coming back to is trademark.’ Since a trademark protection does not require an authorship prerequisite, Estoesta believes it could be a useful tool to protect AI-generated works ‘to a certain degree.’

‘One thing to consider is to incorporate [the AI-generated work] in branding somehow, so that it’s recognized as a source identifier and can be protected,’ she noted.”