Who owns the copyright in AI-generated product photos, and can I protect them?
By Dan BartleyUpdated 4 minute read
The short answer
It depends on the law and the contract. Australian copyright is founded on a person's creative skill and labour, so an image generated from a prompt alone may have no copyright, while human direction and hand finishing strengthen the claim. New Zealand law names an author for computer-generated works: the person who made the arrangements necessary to create them. Either way, get ownership in writing.
Does copyright protect AI-generated images in Australia?
The law has not settled it. The Attorney-General's Department describes copyright as founded on a person's creative skill and labour, and between October and December 2025 it sought feedback from its reference group on improving certainty about how copyright law applies to material generated through AI.
Sources: the department's copyright basics and its page on the Copyright and AI Reference Group, which says that work is informing its advice to government. Until the Government acts or a court rules, the practical reading is that the more a person shapes the final image, the stronger the case for protection.
A frame generated from a single prompt has the weakest claim. A frame built from your own product photos, with the scene directed, the strongest results selected and the product finished by hand, has a stronger one. This page is general information, not legal advice.
What is different in New Zealand?
New Zealand's Copyright Act 1994 expressly covers computer-generated works, meaning works generated by computer where there is no human author. Their author is taken to be the person by whom the arrangements necessary for the work's creation are undertaken, and copyright lasts 50 years from the end of the year the work is made.
See sections 2, 5 and 22 of the Copyright Act 1994. The Act was written long before generative AI, and it does not say whether that person is the one writing the prompt or the company that built the tool. For a business, the answer is the same as in Australia: make sure your contract says who owns the result.
Who owns the images when a studio or agency makes them?
Whoever the contract says, so read it before you pay. Look for ownership, or an exclusive licence for every use, worldwide and with no end date, and check the studio has the right to grant it.
- Ownership passes to you, or you get an exclusive licence for all uses
- No limits by channel, region or time, so the images work on the store, marketplaces, ads, print and packaging
- The studio confirms the tools it uses allow commercial use of their output
- You receive the full-resolution files, not only web versions
Bartley Studio's terms are simple: on full payment you own the images and videos it delivers, indefinitely and worldwide, with no separate licence.
What do the AI tools' own terms say about ownership?
Each tool sets its own terms, and they change, so read the current version before using images commercially, including any limits that apply to free plans.
Shopify, for example, says in its help page on media generation that it does not claim ownership of images merchants create with the tool and does not restrict where they are used.
Can I use AI to recreate another brand's product photos?
Copying another brand's photos is a copyright risk whatever tool does it. The Attorney-General's Department explains that copyright protects the original expression of an idea, not the idea itself, and that it is infringed when a substantial part of a work is reproduced without permission.
A look, such as warm light, linen and timber, is an idea anyone can use. Feeding a competitor's photo into an AI tool to make a near copy risks reproducing a substantial part of their work. Brief the look in words and build it around your own product, and the result is yours to use.
How can I protect my AI product images from being copied?
Keep the records that show the human work behind them, protect the brand assets that sit inside them, and use the platforms' reporting tools when someone copies them.
- Keep the phone photos, briefs, edit files and versions for every frame. Your own photographs of the product are artistic works, which copyright protects
- Register your logo and brand name as trade marks with IP Australia, or with the Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand
- Report copied images through the intellectual property forms on the marketplace or platform where they appear
- Keep the full-resolution masters private and publish web-sized versions
Other questions people ask about this
Do I need to register copyright in Australia?
No, there is no copyright register. The Attorney-General's Department contrasts copyright with patents, trade marks and designs, which have to be registered with IP Australia.
Can someone else use an AI image that looks like mine?
If they made a similar scene themselves, that is not copying. If they took your file, report it to the platform where it appears; your records of the work behind the image help show it is yours.
Does it matter if my AI images may not have copyright?
Less than it sounds for most stores. What you need day to day is the right to use the images everywhere you sell, and a clear contract gives you that.
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