TRO News | Can Animal Illustrations That "Look Obviously AI-Generated" Still Be Used to Enforce Copyright Against 600 Stores? Sellers, Check Now!

Many sellers are very curious: "AI works protected by copyright?" The U.S. Copyright Office's "Copyright and Artificial Intelligence: Copyrightability, Part 2 Report," released in month 1 of 2025, explains this question very clearly: purely AI-generated works based only on prompts—are not protected by copyright; AI used only as an inspiration reference, with independent human creation—AI is merely a creative substitute rather than the author, and the work as a whole is protected; human creation + incorporation of AI elements or creative arrangement and modification of AI output—the overall work can still be registered, but only the human contributions are protected. There is also a key point for defendants' defenses: AI-generated material must be disclosed and disclaimed when applying for registration; concealment may lead to cancellation of the registration and loss of the legal basis for infringement claims.

Take U.S. long-established greeting card company Avanti Press's copyrighted works, for which it commissioned the Keith law firm to initiate enforcement on day 12 of month 10, as an example. Do you think these images were made with AI?

Copyrights Being Enforced

Avanti Press

This collection of works subject to enforcement may "look obviously AI-generated." However, the original Exhibit 1 in this court case provides evidence to the contrary: all the works at issue were completed in 2011–2022, long before generative AI became widespread; the certificates explicitly describe the technique as "photography of real animals + Photoshop digital compositing," individually list the excluded underlying photographic materials, and separately credit the photographers of certain source materials.This series of works was the subject of 4 enforcement actions within a week. Nearly 600 stores were targeted in the first three cases, while the defendant list in this case remains under seal.Using these copyrighted works directly without authorization carries a very high risk of being subject to a TRO!

Ruiguan reminds cross-border sellers to conduct comprehensive infringement checks before listing products!

Part.01

Infringement Case Overview

• Brand Enforcing Its Rights:Avanti Press Quirky Animal Illustrations

• Plaintiff: Avanti Press, Inc.

• Enforcement Type: Copyright

• Enforcement Case Numbers: 26-cv-12472/26-cv-12262/26-cv-12214/26-cv-12237

• Enforcement Law Firm: Keith

• Types Covered by Copyright:

Part.02

Categories at High Risk of TROs

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Part.03

Ruiguan Copyright Detection

Upload an image of a bestselling Amazon product to exclusively developed in-house's copyright detection feature for screening, and the results show that the product design has a history of enforcement involving an effective TRO.

Part.04

Ruiguan Copyright Detection

It is also worth mentioning that this illustration series is extremely popular on Amazon/Etsy/Walmart and other platforms. Screening with Ruiguan's web-wide copyright search feature found that more than 20 stores are still selling these products.

Part.05

Summary

The core message of this case is that works with AI-inspired concepts but created by humans are also protected by copyright.Many sellers may initially mistake Avanti Press's surreal greeting card images, which seamlessly combine "animals + props," for AI-generated images, and consequently assume that "AI images have no copyright and can be used freely."Perhaps all these ideas came from AI, but these works were created by humans, so they are protected by copyright just the same. If the products you sell as a cross-border seller happen to feature animal designs that "look obviously AI-generated," please be sure to conduct comprehensive infringement checks.

Ruiguan Knowledge Bureau