AI-Generated Product Images in China: Copyright, Ownership and Infringement Risk

On 23 October the World Intellectual Property Organization published a study on AI training and copyright that sets out five choices countries still have to make (news). While the rules on training are debated, many brands already use AI every day for product shots, lifestyle images, packaging and listing copy, including on Chinese marketplaces. The practical questions are more immediate: does that content have copyright, who owns it, can you act when someone copies it in China, and could using it get you into trouble? This article sets out how Chinese courts have answered so far and how that differs from the United States. It is general information; a specific case needs professional advice.

Can an AI-generated image be protected in China?

• Yes, if a person made creative choices: in Li v Liu, (2023) Jing 0491 Min Chu No. 11279, decided in November 2023, the Beijing Internet Court found that an image made with an AI tool was a work of fine art. The plaintiff had designed and revised the prompts, adjusted parameters and selected the result, which showed the plaintiff's intellectual input and personal expression. The plaintiff was the author, and the defendant, who removed the plaintiff's signature watermark and reposted the image, infringed the plaintiff's rights of attribution and online dissemination. The court stressed that each case must be judged on its facts.
• "One-click" images may not qualify: by the same logic, an image produced from a short prompt with a single click, with no prompt refinement, selection or editing, is hard to tie to human creative input and may not be a work.
• The AI is not the author: Chinese courts treat copyright as belonging to the person or company that made the intellectual contribution, not to the model.

If you want protection, keep the creative trail

1. Save prompt versions, parameters and seeds, and records of selecting, inpainting, combining and editing the output.
2. Keep original files and dated exports that match the published versions.
3. If staff, agencies or freelancers create images with AI, the contract should assign the results to you and require them to hand over the process files.
4. Consider voluntary copyright registration in China for key images. Registration is not required for protection, but it is convenient prima facie evidence of ownership for marketplace complaints and litigation. Describe honestly how the work was made. For how ownership evidence works in marketplace takedowns, see Your Product Photos Copied on Chinese Marketplaces: Copyright, Trademark or Design?

Could using AI images infringe someone else's rights?

• Similar output can still infringe: in 2024 the Guangzhou Internet Court held that images generated by an AI service that were substantially similar to the Ultraman character infringed copyright. Putting such images on products or ads carries the same risk for the user.
• Do not prompt with other people's brands, characters or celebrities: "in the style of" a brand or character can raise copyright, trademark and personality-rights issues at once.
• Read the tool's terms: whether output may be used commercially, who owns it and whether the provider keeps rights to it varies between tools.

China requires AI content to be labelled

China's Measures for Labelling AI-Generated and Synthetic Content took effect on 1 September 2025. AI service providers must add explicit labels that users can see and implicit labels in file metadata to generated text, images, audio and video, and no organisation or individual may maliciously remove, alter, forge or hide those labels. When you publish AI-made marketing content in China, do not strip the labels; platforms may also ask you to declare that content is AI-generated.

The US position is stricter

• In March 2025, in Thaler v Perlmutter, the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld the Copyright Office's refusal to register a work made entirely by AI with no human author.
• The US Copyright Office requires applicants to identify AI-generated material and exclude it from the claim; only the human-authored parts are protected.
• So an AI image that may be protected in China may not be registrable in the US. For core brand visuals used in several markets, keep a human in charge of the creative work, use AI as an assistant and keep the records.

Do not rely on copyright for logos and brand names

An AI-generated logo or name has uncertain copyright protection and may clash with someone's earlier trademark. Run a trademark search before launch and register the mark in China and your other markets. If you license stock or AI images from third parties, keep the licence records; see Stock Image Licences in China: What Records to Keep Before You Use Licensed Photos.

Frequently asked questions

A Chinese seller copied our AI-made product photo. Can we file a complaint? You can try. What matters is process evidence showing your team made the image through creative choices. A finished file alone, with no trail, may not convince a platform or a court.

Is AI-written copy protected? The test is the same: human input and expression. Short slogans are often too short to be works even when written by people, so trademarks usually protect them better.

Can we register an AI-assisted work in China? You can apply, describing how it was made. Whether it can be enforced later still depends on the human contribution in the specific case.

J&C Intellectual Property Agency, founded in 2008, is a CNIPA-recorded trademark agency and a member of the China Trademark Association. For copyright registration and related services in China, see our copyright services.