for founders, engineering leaders, and counsel shipping AI-generated code
Ownership is not a formality you fix later. It is decided by who authored the expressive work, line by line.
// the AI did the expressive workWhen you let the AI make the creative decisions, the code is not human-authored, and code that is not human-authored is not a protectable asset.
// you own only what you authorIn a codebase that mixes human and AI work, you own the parts a person meaningfully wrote. The AI-generated parts stay unprotected until a human reworks them.
These are not predictions. Each is a recent decision or report that hardened the rule: no human author, no protection.
The Office stated that only portions of a work carrying meaningful human creative input are eligible for protection. The AI-generated remainder is not.
run the check before your next release
A short assessment maps where AI-generated code sits in your stack and where your ownership quietly breaks down.