Who owns the copyright of a product photo generated by an AI tool?
2 min read
Quick Answer
Technically, no one. The US Copyright Office's January 2025 Part 2 report on copyrightability holds that purely AI-generated portions of an image are not eligible for copyright because they lack human authorship, and the Supreme Court declined to revisit that line on March 2, 2026 when it denied certiorari in Thaler v. Perlmutter. Your underlying rights to the depicted product (trademark, trade dress, and any design patent) still apply, and unfair-competition law gives you remedies if a competitor reuses the image to sell a knock-off.
How Nightjar fits in
Nightjar is designed to preserve your product, the most important part of the image, with high fidelity. Because the product itself is real and protected by your existing IP rights, the lack of copyright on the AI-generated background is negligible for ecommerce purposes. Nightjar's terms grant you full ownership rights to the Output you generate, including for commercial use.
Distinguishing Ownership vs. Copyright
| Concept | Explanation | Who has it? |
|---|---|---|
| Copyright | Legal protection of the artistic expression (lighting, pixel arrangement). | No one for purely AI-generated portions; effectively public domain. |
| Trademark and Trade Dress | Protection of your brand logo, name, and distinctive product appearance visible in the photo. | You (the brand). |
| Design Patent | Protection of the ornamental design of the physical product, where registered. | You. |
| Output Usage Rights | The contractual right to use the Asset commercially. | You (granted by Nightjar's terms). |
Practical Advice
Don't worry about registering copyright for every catalog image. Rely on trademark, trade dress, design rights, and unfair-competition law. If a competitor reuses your AI-generated image to sell a knock-off, the stronger claims are usually false advertising under FTC Section 5 (or state equivalents), trademark infringement, and passing off, not copyright. Keep an audit trail of which Asset went to which listing so you can document use if a dispute arises.
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