US Supreme Court Declines Appeal Hearing For Case On Copyrighting AI Artwork
16March 12, 2026
On March 2, the US Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal for computer scientist Stephen Thaler’s attempt to secure copyright protection for an AI-generated image. The decision upheld a DC Circuit Court ruling which maintained that human authorship is an essential requirement for copyright as per the 1976 US Copyright Act.Thaler’s attempts to attain a copyright for the image stretch back to November 2018, when he first filed a registration application with the US Copyright Office, listing himself as the sole owner of the artwork, titled A Recent Entrance To Paradise, 2012, that was generated by his AI software dubbed the “Creativity Machine,” which is listed as the work’s author. The image depicts train tracks running through an archway in an overgrown forest landscape tinged with green and purple hues.The US Copyright Office rejected Thaler’s application in 2022 on the grounds that creative works must have human authors to be eligible for copyright. Thaler and his legal team subsequently filed a lawsuit against the Copyright Office, seeking a review of their decision in the federal district court.In the opinion written by the DC Circuit Court, Judge Patricia A. Millett sided with the Copyright Office, and affirmed the human authorship requirement stating: “As a matter of statutory law, the Copyright Act requires all work to be authored in the first instance by a human being.” Since Thaler’s software is not a human being, the judge wrote that “the Copyright Office appropriately denied Dr. Thaler’s application.”Thaler has previously filed for patents for prototypes of a beverage holder and a light beacon which he alleges were invented by his DABUS AI system. The patents were similarly denied and the Supreme Court turned away Thaler’s attempt to appeal a lower court’s ruling on the matter in 2023.The DC Court ruling also observed that the “Copyright Office has allowed the registration of works made by human authors who use artificial intelligence.” This implies that Thaler might still be able to secure a copyright by listing himself as the work’s author. Despite the setback, Thaler wrote in an email to tech publication CNET, that he saw the denial of his appeal as a “philosophical milestone,” that questions “whether autonomous computational processes could genuinely originate ideas.” Even so, citing the rapid evolution of current AI models in the market, he expressed concern that the DC Court ruling only addressed what “the statute currently allows. It did not address what technology has already achieved.” Related Laura Phipps Named Director of Gochman Family Collection “Jeffrey Epstein Walk of Shame” Appears in Washington, DC Public Park