Weekly Column: AI, Copyright, Trademark, and Filmmaking

California Sports Lawyer® Founder and Managing Attorney Jeremy M. Evans column about the need for regulation and oversight with generative artificial intelligence in Hollywood and beyond.

You can read the full column below. (Past columns can be found, here).

Generative artificial intelligence (“AI”) is not considered human. However, there is a growing discussion and concern that state legislatures and Congress will need to address regarding the growth and use of generative AI in daily life. Generative AI grows in knowledge by the second, minute, and hour, and will continue to do so as long as humans rely on and feed its power and influence.

Generative AI is collective knowledge that is available on the internet and inputted by its designer. Generative AI grows in knowledge by learning from itself, human inputs, in real time, and without human limitations of space and time. Normally, humans learn lessons over a lifetime. Generative AI power is so great that seconds are counted as lifetimes.

Generative AI is so powerful that the Hollywood unions have limited its use in filmmaking to protect labor (e.g., writers) and the California legislature passed a law in 2024 that requires the estate or deceased actors to approve of any recreation of their once human form. There has been a larger discussion of deepfakes and protection of human likeness on the internet. AI-protection laws are meant to allow humans to control their name, image, and likeness, while also keeping order to the proverbial chain of life in humans controlling AI versus AI determining human behavior and appearance.

It has been written before, but the concern with AI is that people will become too reliant on its resources and tools. Call it laziness, efficiency, or a combination of both and fascination with power and knowledge. The problem with knowledge however is that it is only as good as its ability to encourage action, effect change, and a healthy life.

AI requires a moral code. A moral code and bill of rights that protects human use and effect. In a counterbalance to the moral code is the need to create and make more things.

In Hollywood, AI is increasingly being used as a tool to create scripts, for CGI, and in post-production. In America, the U.S. Copyright Office has ruled that AI-generated works without human creative input are not eligible for copyright protection. However, works that involve meaningful human modification or selection may qualify for limited copyright protection.

Trademark law works similar to copyright law in that if a trademark is not being used, it does not violate decency rules, and is not confusingly similar to another trademark, a generative AI system could help create a trademark name and it could be registered with the United States Patent and Trade Office (USPTO). However, a human would need to create the inputs and file the trademark. Then again a trained AI system could conceivably file a trademark on its own. The USPTO will need to monitor such circumstances as a trained AI bot could file trademarks and cause a major trolling situation.

Unregulated AI is dangerous. Laws must protect humans whether or not they use AI. Humans must also self-regulate AI use.

About Jeremy M. Evans:

Jeremy M. Evans is the Chief Entrepreneur Officer, Founder & Managing Attorney at California Sports Lawyer®, representing entertainment, media, and sports clients in contractual, intellectual property, and dealmaking matters. Evans is an award-winning attorney and industry leader based in Los Angeles and Newport Beach, California. He can be reached at Jeremy@CSLlegal.com. www.CSLlegal.com.