Using material you did not create
Material found online is usually protected by copyright even without a notice or a registration. Licenses for stock images, music, and fonts come with terms on how and where the material can be used, and those terms are often narrower than people assume. Courts weigh fair use one situation at a time and usually after a dispute arises, so leaning on it for commercial marketing carries risk. Crediting the creator does not by itself make a use lawful.
Owning what is made for you
Work that employees create within the scope of their jobs generally belongs to the employer. Work by independent contractors usually belongs to the contractor unless a signed agreement assigns it, because the work made for hire rule reaches commissioned work only in limited statutory categories and with a written agreement. Businesses often discover the gap when they try to register, sell, or enforce rights in a logo, a website, or software. Fixing it later requires the creator's cooperation, which is easier to get before a dispute than during one.
Content made with AI tools
The U.S. Copyright Office has taken the position that copyright protects human authorship, and a federal appeals court has upheld that position, so material generated entirely by an AI system is generally not registrable, while human selection, arrangement, or modification of it may be. Registration applications should disclose AI-generated material that is more than minimal. Whether training on or producing copyrighted works infringes is being litigated actively, and early decisions do not point in a single direction. We review your workflows, contracts, and tool terms with a focus on what your team actually does day to day.
