When Registering Works Incorporating AI-Generated Material, It Pays to Be Truthful

• Pages: 20-22
• Date: 01 June 2025
• Published date: 01 June 2025
• Author: Anna Chauvet,Alyssa Mottahed

Published in Landslide, Volume 17, Number 4, 2025. © 2025 by the American Bar Association. Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved. This information or any portion

thereof may not be copied or disseminated in any form or by any means or stored in an electronic database or retrieval system without the express written consent of the

American Bar Association.

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When Registering Works

Incorporating AI-Generated

Material, It Pays to Be Truthful

Anna Chauvet and Alyssa Mottahed

G

enerative artif‌icial intelligence (AI) has exploded in popular-

ity and gives users of all artistic levels the ability to create

new content. With the increased use of AI, the U.S. Copy-

right Oce has seen a growth in applications seeking to register

works incorporating AI-generated material. The Copyright Oce’s

recent guidance on registering these types of works includes a new

disclosure requirement, which adds complexity to the application

process because failure to disclose the inclusion of AI-generated

material risks cancellation of the registration.

To help guide copyright applicants and illustrate the impor-

tance of truthful statements in copyright applications, this article

discusses the Copyright Oce’s general application review process,

why multiple incentives exist for applicants to be truthful in their

applications, the Copyright Oce’s general guidance relating to

works containing AI-generated material, and the consequences of

failing to disclaim AI-generated material in works being registered.

Copyright Oce’s General Review Process for

Applications

The U.S. Copyright Oce administers the U.S. copyright registra-

tion system. When reviewing copyright applications, the Copyright

Oce generally accepts facts stated in applications as true “unless

they are implausible or conf‌lict with information in the registra-

tion materials, the Oce’s records, or other sources of information

that are known by the Oce or the general public.”

1

Although

the Copyright Oce does not generally conduct its own factual

Anna Chauvet is a partner and leads the copyright practice

at Finnegan. She represents clients in copyright litigation,

licensing, and enforcement matters and engages in high-

level, strategic policy and related regulatory work on

copyright. She can be reached at anna.chauvet@finnegan.

com. Alyssa Mottahed is an associate at Finnegan, where

she focuses on trademark prosecution and litigation in

the apparel, consumer goods, entertainment, media, and

sports and f‌itness industries. She can be reached at alyssa.

mottahed@finnegan.com.

Image: Getty Images/Alberto Case