Is an AI-Generated Image a "Work"? Court Dismisses Infringement Claim Due to Lack of Originality in Prompts

WISECODE Take

Many business owners mistakenly believe that AI-generated images with minor tweaks are protected by intellectual property rights, but a recent judgment by the Changsha Kaifu District People's Court debunked this myth. The plaintiff, Xiao Ma, sued a kindergarten for 10,000 RMB over the unauthorized use of an AI-generated sachet image, but the court dismissed the case. The court pointed out that when the creator, Xiao Shao, generated the image on May 8, 2025, he only entered general prompts like "multicolor" and later used software only to correct typos. Under Article 3 of the Copyright Law, the court ruled that such minimal control and post-processing did not reflect original human intellectual input. This means businesses relying on simple prompts cannot enforce copyrights, much like a sports coach shouting "run left" from the sidelines cannot claim credit for scoring the goal. However, teams using AI solely for internal drafting are unaffected. IP-Discovery's patent portfolio health check service can help enterprises identify which assets are truly protectable. I suggest two actions: first, design workflows must retain logs of prompt adjustments and parameter settings to prove human dominance; second, post-processing must introduce substantial original design rather than mere technical fixes like background removal. The key to AI copyright protection lies in whether humans act as mere bystanders giving orders or as creators holding true dominance.