United States of America: Columbia District Court of Appeals issued ruling upholding human authorship requirement for copyright protection (Thaler v USPTO/case No. 23-5233)
Description
Columbia District Court of Appeals issued ruling upholding human authorship requirement for copyright protection (Thaler v USPTO/case No. 23-5233)
On 18 March 2025, the Columbia District Court of Appeals upheld the United States Copyright Office’s decision that human authorship is required for copyright protection under the Copyright Act of 1978. The ruling reaffirmed that artificial intelligence (AI) generated content cannot be copyrighted. The ruling focused on the statutory language, noting that AI, as a machine, cannot own property, have a lifespan, inherit rights, sign documents, or form intent, elements integral to copyright law. It also emphasised that the Act treats AI as a tool assisting human authors rather than as an author itself.
Original sourceScope
Policy Area
Intellectual property
Policy Instrument
Copyright protection regulation
Regulated Economic Activity
ML and AI development
Implementation Level
national
Government Branch
judiciary
Government Body
court
Complete timeline of this policy change
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2019-08-12
under investigation
2020-03-30
under investigation
2021-09-02
under investigation
2022-02-14
in force
2022-08-05
in force
2023-04-24
in force
2023-08-18
in force