Delhi HC sets deadline for copyright office to register AI artwork

Court directs Registrar to rule on AI-generated artwork copyright application, raising key questions on authorship and legal recognition under Indian law

The Delhi High Court (HC) on Thursday asked the copyright office to take a final call within eight weeks on a long-pending application seeking registration of an artwork created using artificial intelligence (AI). The direction came on a petition by Stephen Thaler, who is seeking copyright protection for the work titled “A Recent Entrance to Paradise”. The artwork is claimed to have been generated autonomously by his AI system DABUS (Device for the Autonomous Bootstrapping of Unified Sentience).

 

Justice Tushar Rao Gedela disposed of the matter after noting that the copyright office has fixed a hearing on the matter on April 27, 2026. The court instructed the Registrar of Copyrights to complete the adjudication process as expeditiously as possible, preferably within eight weeks from that date. The disputed work has been described as a surreal visual output produced without direct human intervention.

   

Thaler has maintained that the image is the result of independent creative processes carried out by the AI system. His application, filed in 2022, has remained undecided for nearly four years now, prompting him to approach the court for directions.

 

At the centre of the dispute lies the key legal question of whether works generated entirely by AI can qualify for protection under the Copyright Act, 1957. While the law recognises “computer-generated works”, it does not explicitly address authorship by non-human entities, creating uncertainty in interpretation.

 

During scrutiny of the application, objections were raised on the ground that only a natural person can be recognised as an author under the existing law. Thaler, however, has argued that AI-generated content falls within the scope of “computer-generated works”, where authorship could be attributed to the individual who causes the work to be created.

 

Thaler has been at the forefront of global attempts to push the boundaries of intellectual property law in the AI context, having filed similar claims in multiple jurisdictions. Authorities and courts in the US, UK, and the EU have so far rejected such claims, holding that legal frameworks recognise only human authors or inventors.

 

In the global sphere, The Recording Academy, known for presenting the Grammy Awards, allows AI-assisted music to compete for Grammys, provided humans play a "meaningful" role in the creative process, as only humans are eligible to win awards.

 

The proceedings in Delhi mark one of the first direct judicial engagements in India with the question of copyright protection for AI-generated works. Recently, the Delhi HC had reserved its verdict on a crucial copyright infringement lawsuit filed by Asian News International (ANI) against OpenAI for allegedly using its news content without authorisation to train ChatGPT.