Thaler v. Perlmutter

rights policy item·appellate court decision·unknown

The D.C. Circuit affirmed that a work generated without human authorship is not copyrightable under the Copyright Act.

Verified facts

Official site	https://www.copyright.gov/ai/docs/court-of-appeals-decision-affirming-refusal-of-registration.pdf ↗
Geography	United States
identifier	No. 23-5233
parties	Stephen Thaler; Shira Perlmutter; U.S. Copyright Office
item type	appellate_court_decision
confidence	high
identifier	No. 23-5233
filing date	unknown
jurisdiction	United States
adoption date	unknown
affected works	A Recent Entrance to Paradise
current status	affirmed_human_authorship_requirement
effective date	unknown
affected models	Creativity Machine
canonical title	Thaler v. Perlmutter
confidence basis	Primary document reviewed; status language is conservative.
enforcement date	unknown
affected datasets	unknown
issuing authority	U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
primary documents	https://www.copyright.gov/ai/docs/court-of-appeals-decision-affirming-refusal-of-registration.pdf
procedural posture	Thaler v. Perlmutter: SCOTUS No. 25-449 cert DENIED 2026-03-02; D.C. Cir. No. 23-5233 opinion of 2025-03-18 (human-authorship requirement) stands; cert denial is not a merits ruling
unresolved questions	How much human contribution is sufficient when a human directs or edits an AI output.
affected entity types	AI system users; copyright applicants