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ARTICLE · 08 MAY 2025

Copyrightability Of Outputs Generated By AI Systems

Osha Bergman Watanabe & Burton LLP
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The first federal copyright law was written to protect books, charts, and maps. Over time, the scope of protection provided by copyright law has expanded...

United StatesIntellectual Property
Lukas Zalesky
Lukas Zalesky
Jonathan P. Osha
Jonathan P. Osha
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Introduction

The first federal copyright law was written to protect books, charts, and maps. Over time, the scope of protection provided by copyright law has expanded to protect musical compositions, graphic works, sculpture and architecture, and digital creations. This expansion has been necessitated, in part, by the development of new and widely available technologies that aid the creative process. Now, the rapid progress of Artificial Intelligence ("AI") technologies and the proliferation of AI-generated media has motivated new inquiries into the types of content that may be protected by copyright law.

In early 2023, the United States Copyright Office ("USCO") launched an initiative to substantively examine the intersection of copyright law and policy with AI and AI-generated content. As part of this initiative, the USCO published a Notice of Inquiry on August 30, 2023, in the Federal Register formally seeking input from the public. The USCO received feedback

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