Who Owns an AI Commercial? Rights, IP and Brand Safety for Brands
Before a brand publishes an AI-generated commercial, someone in legal will ask four questions: who owns it, could it infringe anyone else's rights, will it show our product correctly, and do we have to label it? This guide answers those questions from the producer's side: what to settle in the brief and the contract so the film can run with confidence.
We're PHOCUS Creators, an AI creative studio that also produces live action. Rights clearance is a standard part of live-action production, and the same questions apply to AI. This article is general information, not legal advice. Laws differ by country and are changing quickly; check with your own counsel.
Short answer
Ownership of an AI commercial is defined mainly by the production contract, because copyright protection for material generated purely by AI is limited in many jurisdictions. Brands should make sure the contract states what they receive and for which uses, that the tools used allow commercial use of their output, that no real person's likeness or third-party IP is generated without clearance, and that the studio documents what was generated for disclosure.
1. Copyright: why human contribution matters
In most legal systems copyright protects works created by humans. In the United States, the Copyright Office has said that purely AI-generated material is not protectable, while human selection, arrangement and modification can be; US courts have upheld the human authorship requirement. In the EU, protection depends on originality understood as the author's own intellectual creation, and national laws such as Spain's define the author as a natural person.
What that means in practice for a commercial:
The script, the direction, the edit and the composition are human work, and that is where much of the protectable value sits.
Individual generated frames may carry little or no copyright protection on their own. Competitors copying a single generated image is a real, if usually small, risk.
The contract does the heavy lifting. It should assign or license to the brand everything the studio can assign, and set out the usage the brand receives.
2. Tool licences: can the output be used commercially?
Every AI tool has terms of service, and they differ on commercial use, ownership of outputs and indemnities. Some plans grant commercial rights, others don't; some providers offer IP indemnities on certain tiers. Ask the studio:
Which tools will be used, and on which plans?
Do those terms allow commercial use of the output by the client?
Will the studio keep a record of the tools used on each shot?
3. Likeness: real people and lookalikes
Generating a recognisable real person, whether a celebrity, an employee or an ambassador, without consent exposes the brand to image-rights and personality-rights claims, and in some markets to rules on deepfakes. Generic characters are fine; resemblance to a real person is not. When a real person needs to appear, the safer route is to film them with a release that explicitly covers AI use, which is one of the main reasons hybrid productions exist. If AI-generated voices are used, the same logic applies to voice likeness.
4. Third-party IP: logos, products, characters, styles
AI models can reproduce things they shouldn't: another company's logo on a background billboard, a recognisable car, a cartoon character, a protected artwork. Every frame should be checked for third-party marks and designs before delivery, just as an art department clears a set. Avoid prompts that name living artists or other brands' campaigns as references.
5. Brand safety: your own product, accurately
The most common brand problem with AI is not legal, it's accuracy: a label with invented letters, a logo slightly off, a product with the wrong proportions. A professional workflow locks product references early and checks them shot by shot, as we describe in keeping AI product images on brand. Anything that must be exact can be filmed and combined with AI.
6. Disclosure: labelling AI content
Platforms such as Meta, YouTube and TikTok have their own rules for labelling realistic AI-generated or AI-altered content, and the EU AI Act adds transparency duties for synthetic content and deepfakes. The details depend on the platform, the market and how realistic the content is. What matters in production is having a record of what was filmed and what was generated, so labelling decisions are easy. Our article on EU AI Act Article 50 for advertisers explains the EU side.
7. Data you share with the studio
Product files, unreleased designs and brand assets are often uploaded to AI tools during production. Ask how the studio handles them: which tools see them, whether those tools use inputs for training, and what happens to the files after delivery. If a model is fine-tuned on your assets, agree who keeps it.
The contract and brief checklist
Use this list when you commission an AI or hybrid commercial:
Deliverables and ownership. What is assigned or licensed to the brand: finished film, versions, stills, project files.
Usage. Media, territories and period, including music, voice and any filmed talent.
Tools. Named tools and plans, with commercial-use terms confirmed.
Likeness. No generation of real people without written consent; releases for filmed talent that cover AI use.
Third-party clearance. Frame-by-frame check for marks, designs and characters.
Product accuracy. Reference pack, approval of product appearance at look development.
Production record. Log of filmed vs generated shots and tools used, delivered with the masters.
Disclosure. Who prepares AI labels for each platform and market.
Confidentiality and data. How client assets are handled inside AI tools.
Legal review. Whether and when the brand's legal team signs off before launch.
Several of these items also affect budget; see what drives the cost of an AI commercial.
How we handle it at PHOCUS
Every PHOCUS AI and hybrid project is led by one of our in-house AI Commercial Directors, Jaime Calachi or Carles Mas, with specialised external AI talent selected for the brief. We only use AI tools licensed for commercial use, and we don't generate real people or third-party brands. Usage rights are agreed for each project in the production contract.
If you're planning an AI commercial and want to get the rights side right from day one, send us your brief or read about our AI commercial production service.