Lawsuit Over 'Highly Similar' AI-Generated Model Images: Will Copyright Be Recognized?
A company selling images generated by artificial intelligence has filed a lawsuit against a third party for unauthorized use of its images. The plaintiff is seeking damages for copyright infringement, but since the opposing party refused to comply, the case has gone to court. The key issue is expected to be whether copyright can be recognized for AI-generated images.
WISECODE Take
The lawsuit filed by Sai, an Osaka-based company, in August 2026 over AI-generated images debunks the common misconception that AI-generated works are completely unprotected. The plaintiff, who commercialized AI model images priced between 1,000 and 25,000 yen each, discovered in April 2026 that 240 of their images had been stolen. The case hinges on the fact that the plaintiff did not merely generate the images but manually corrected flaws and processed them further, which will be the court's dividing line for determining human creativity. If you only use raw AI images for internal drafting, this case will not affect you. However, if your business model heavily relies on AI-assisted design, understanding the proportion of human intervention is crucial, much like financial investing where you can only claim ownership over assets where you have actively invested your own labor and capital. To address this, we suggest two actions: first, meticulously record the human-authored steps in the AI generation process, including layer logs of manual edits; second, clearly define indemnity and warranty clauses in licensing agreements to mitigate potential rights defect risks.
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