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ARTICLE · 23 MARCH 2026

March 2026 FZLZ Minute

Fross Zelnick Lehrman & Zissu, P.C.
Fross Zelnick Lehrman & Zissu, P.C.
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Fross Zelnick Lehrman & Zissu, P.C.

Fross Zelnick Lehrman & Zissu, P.C.

At Fross Zelnick, we secure and defend our clients’ most valuable assets—their brands, designs, and...

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We reported in our March 2025 issue on the D.C. Circuit's decision in Thaler v. Perlmutter, in which the plaintiff, a computer scientist, sought a copyright registration for an image...

GlobalIntellectual Property
Fross Zelnick Lehrman & Zissu, P.C.
Fross Zelnick Lehrman & Zissu, P.C.
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Copyright and AI: Human touch still required

We reported in our March 2025 issue on the D.C. Circuit's decision in Thaler v. Perlmutter, in which the plaintiff, a computer scientist, sought a copyright registration for an image that his generative AI system had autonomously created. Now, a year later, the Supreme Court has denied the plaintiff's certiorari petition in the case. Accordingly, to claim copyright, rights holders should take care to document "human" contributions to their work. Significantly, in its March 2025 opinion, the Circuit Court noted that its decision was limited to cases in which the AI is listed as the sole author. The Copyright Office has permitted registration where the human author was assisted by AI tools.

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