IP Ownership Of AI-Generated Designs

In Marks & Clerk's latest AI Report 2024, we consider the use of AI in creating a product design, which may be the subject of a Registered Design. However, even if the AI-generated output itself meets the requirements for being registered as a design, the question remains as to who may qualify as the owner of the design.

In relation to patents, decisions on AI inventorship have been passed down from the Supreme Court of the United States, the European Patent Office Board of Appeal, and the UK Supreme Court. If AI-generated technical advances cannot be patented, what rights remain available to protect these works? We aim to explore the various rights that may still be available for AI-generated works: how inventions that build on AI-generated works can be protected; what can be protected by Registered and Unregistered Design Rights; and how the law differs in the UK, EU and USA.