Decisions · Court · United States

Thaler v. Perlmutter

U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit · 2025-03-18 · Appellate court · Current

Later historyThe Supreme Court declined review (2026).Thaler v. Perlmutter (certiorari denied)

Thaler v. Perlmutter (D.C. Cir. 2025), affirming D.D.C. 2023

Protection of AI output

Can AI-generated work be protected?

Human authors only

Work made autonomously by AI cannot be registered

Why hereCoded at the pole: its core holding or recommendation answers the question outright.

Holding

The court upheld the Copyright Office's refusal to register an image that Stephen Thaler said his AI system created on its own. US copyright requires a human author.

In the US, something generated entirely by AI has no copyright owner. Keep a record of your own creative contribution.

Principles it bears on

SupportsCopyright needs a human author; protection follows human creative input, not the machine.

Sources

Primary source ↗Summary ↗

This record

Data as of 2026-10-21.

Drafted with AI assistance and checked against the sources linked above; not yet reviewed by a lawyer. Methodology

No changes logged yet. The change log started on 2026-10-20.