Can I register copyright in an AI image I edited?

Yes, for your edits, if they are creative enough to count on their own. In the Zarya of the Dawn decision the Office refused credit for small changes to a character’s lips as too minor and imperceptible. Describe what you changed, disclose the AI-generated parts, and expect the registration to cover only your contribution.

Can a competitor copy my AI-generated ad?

In the US, the parts a model generated from a prompt may have no copyright, so copying only those parts may not infringe. Other rules can still protect you: your trademark, your own photos or artwork visible in the ad, and unfair competition law if the copy confuses buyers.

Does the UK rule mean I own AI images I make in Britain?

Possibly. Section 9(3) of the 1988 Act names the person who made the arrangements for a computer-generated work as its author, with protection for 50 years. There is no case law applying it to generative AI, and in March 2026 the government proposed removing that protection while keeping it for AI-assisted work. On September 24, 2026 the section was still in force.

Who owns images an agency makes for me with AI?

Your contract decides who owns the human parts. In the US, copyright in those parts belongs first to the person who made them, unless it is a work made for hire or the rights are transferred. Ask the agency to transfer its rights, confirm the tool terms allowed commercial use, and hand over the prompts, models and references it used. The contract points are listed in telling clients you used AI.

Who owns AI-generated images?

Checked September 24, 20268 min read

Short answer

In the US, no one holds copyright in what an AI model generates on its own. The Copyright Office says prompts alone do not make you the author, and on March 2, 2026 the Supreme Court declined to hear Thaler v. Perlmutter. You can own the human parts: your own photo or artwork that shows in the result, your creative edits, and your selection and arrangement. Tool terms pass you whatever rights exist, which may be none.

The answer by country

The US, the EU and the UK all agree that a machine is not an author. They differ on whether an image with no human author gets any protection at all.

Where	Image made by AI on its own	What a person can own	Main source
United States	No copyright. The Copyright Act requires a human author (D.C. Circuit, March 18, 2025; Supreme Court review denied March 2, 2026).	Human-made material visible in the output, creative edits, and the selection and arrangement of elements	US Copyright Office report, January 29, 2025
European Union	No EU law on the point. Member states told the Council of the EU in December 2024 that only a natural person can be an author, so purely AI-generated works are not protected.	AI-assisted work, if the human input was significant and the usual originality test is met	Council of the EU summary, December 20, 2024
United Kingdom	Possibly. Section 9(3) of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 makes the person who made "the arrangements necessary" the author of a computer-generated work, for 50 years. The government’s March 2026 report says there is no case law on how it applies.	Work made with AI as a tool, on the normal originality test	CDPA 1988 sections 9(3) and 12(7); UK report, March 2026

Status on September 24, 2026.

What the US Copyright Office counts as human authorship

The Copyright Office set out its view in a report on January 29, 2025. Using AI as a tool does not cost you protection. What you cannot own is material the AI generated where you had no control over its expressive elements. The Office says prompts, with today’s tools, work as "instructions that convey unprotectible ideas". It compares repeated prompting to re-rolling dice: you get more outputs to pick from, and no more control over any one of them.

What the person did	Protected?	Example the Office gave
Wrote a detailed text prompt, even one revised many times	No, for the image itself	The January 2025 report on prompts
Uploaded their own drawing or photo, which is still visible in the output	Yes, the visible human part	Rose Enigma, registered March 21, 2023, limited to the human drawing
Applied a Van Gogh style to their own photo with an AI app	No	SURYAST, refusal upheld December 11, 2023
Selected and arranged AI images with their own text in a comic book	Yes, the text and the arrangement, not the images	Zarya of the Dawn, February 21, 2023
Made small edits to an AI image, a mouth and upper lip	No, too minor	The same Zarya of the Dawn letter
Edited regions of an image and regenerated them to control what goes where	Case by case	The report discusses region-editing tools and says these can be protected when the choices are original

How the Office has treated common contributions. The decisions named are published on copyright.gov.

When you register a work that contains AI material, the Office’s March 2023 guidance asks you to disclose AI-generated content that is more than de minimis (more than a trivial amount) and to describe what the human contributed. The Office says it has registered hundreds of works that include AI material, with each registration covering only the human part.

The Thaler ruling, and the case still open

Stephen Thaler asked to register an image his system, the "Creativity Machine", made on its own, and listed the machine as the author. The D.C. Circuit refused on March 18, 2025, holding that the Copyright Act requires a human author. The same opinion says the rule does not bar copyright in work made by or with the assistance of AI; the author has to be the human who used it. The court denied rehearing on May 12, 2025, and the Supreme Court denied review on March 2, 2026 (docket 25-449). That case is over.

One challenge is still open. In Allen v. Perlmutter, in federal court in Colorado, artist Jason Allen contests the Office’s September 5, 2023 refusal to register his AI-generated image "Théâtre D’opéra Spatial". Both sides asked the judge to decide without a trial, and the last brief was filed on February 27, 2026. When we checked the public docket on September 24, 2026, no ruling had been posted.

What this means for AI product photos

Most brand images made with AI mix human and machine work, so ownership is split inside a single file.

Your label art, logo and packaging design stay yours if you own them. When your own artwork shows in the render, the Copyright Office treats that visible part as your authorship, as it did with the Rose Enigma drawing.
The generated scene around the product (the light, props and background) is likely unprotected in the US if the model made it from a prompt. A competitor who copies only that part may not infringe your copyright.
Your retouching, compositing and layout count if they are creative and substantial. Color tweaks and small fixes probably do not.
Your logo and brand name are protected by trademark law, which does not depend on who drew the pixels. See logos and trademarks in AI images.

If a hero image has to be yours alone, build it so the key parts are human-made: supply a real product photo, design the type and layout yourself, and use AI for the parts you could live with someone copying.

What the tools’ terms say

Terms of service settle what the tool company claims. They cannot create a copyright the law does not give, which is why OpenAI assigns you its rights in outputs "if any". For what the same terms say about commercial use and legal cover, see can you use AI images commercially.

Tool	Who owns the output under its terms	Worth knowing	Terms date
OpenAI (ChatGPT, API)	You. OpenAI assigns you whatever rights it has.	Other users may get similar output, and your assignment does not cover theirs.	Effective January 1, 2026
Google Gemini API	Google says it will not claim ownership of generated content.	Google may generate the same or similar content for others.	Last modified April 28, 2026
Midjourney	You, "to the fullest extent possible under applicable law".	A company with more than $1,000,000 a year in revenue must be on the Pro or Mega plan to own its outputs. Images are public and remixable unless you use Stealth mode.	Effective May 27, 2026
OpenRouter, a service that gives one account for many AI models	Set by each model maker’s terms, not by OpenRouter.	You agree to follow each model’s terms when you use it.	Last updated August 31, 2026

Checked September 24, 2026. Read the current version before you rely on it.

Keep a record of the human work

Ownership questions turn on evidence of what a person did. The record costs little to keep as you work and is hard to rebuild a year later.

Human contribution record (one per final image)

Image ID and final file name:
Date finished:
People involved and their roles (art director, retoucher, designer):
Human-made inputs used (own photos, sketches, label art), with file names:
AI tool, model and version, and the terms version in force that day:
Prompts used, and how many renders were made:
Which render was picked, by whom, and why:
Edits made after the render (retouching, compositing, type, layout), with layered files saved:
Parts that are AI-generated and not claimed:
Short description of the human contribution, for a copyright registration:

Save every render, including the ones you reject, and mark the pick. See how many AI renders it takes per usable photo.
Keep layered working files so your edits can be shown step by step.
Save a copy of the tool’s terms as they read on the day you made the image.
If you register, disclose the AI material and claim only the human part.
Put ownership of the human parts in writing with any agency or freelancer who worked on the file.

Questions people also ask

Can I register copyright in an AI image I edited?: Yes, for your edits, if they are creative enough to count on their own. In the Zarya of the Dawn decision the Office refused credit for small changes to a character’s lips as too minor and imperceptible. Describe what you changed, disclose the AI-generated parts, and expect the registration to cover only your contribution.
Can a competitor copy my AI-generated ad?: In the US, the parts a model generated from a prompt may have no copyright, so copying only those parts may not infringe. Other rules can still protect you: your trademark, your own photos or artwork visible in the ad, and unfair competition law if the copy confuses buyers.
Does the UK rule mean I own AI images I make in Britain?: Possibly. Section 9(3) of the 1988 Act names the person who made the arrangements for a computer-generated work as its author, with protection for 50 years. There is no case law applying it to generative AI, and in March 2026 the government proposed removing that protection while keeping it for AI-assisted work. On September 24, 2026 the section was still in force.
Who owns images an agency makes for me with AI?: Your contract decides who owns the human parts. In the US, copyright in those parts belongs first to the person who made them, unless it is a work made for hire or the rights are transferred. Ask the agency to transfer its rights, confirm the tool terms allowed commercial use, and hand over the prompts, models and references it used. The contract points are listed in telling clients you used AI.

Where Overs fits

Overs keeps every attempt, records approvals, and exports each campaign with the prompt, model and reference pictures behind every photo, so much of the record above exists without extra work. The image model’s own terms still decide what rights you receive from it.

Free for 40 photos a month. The AI that makes the photos is billed separately, on your own key, with no markup from Overs.

Start free How it works

Sources

Checked on September 24, 2026. Prices, specs and rules change; follow the links for the current versions.