Using AI in your business? Make sure your intellectual property keeps up.

AI-generated marketing business scenarios

"I'm using ChatGPT for marketing."

Worth checking whether the platform's terms actually give you full commercial rights to what it produces, and whether any of that copy sits a little too close to source material it was trained on.

"We're building software with GitHub Copilot."

Make sure your development agreements and employment contracts are drafted to cover AI-assisted code, not just code written from scratch, so ownership is clear from day one.

"We're creating AI images."

Image generators raise their own copyright questions, both in what went into training the model and in what you can legally do with the output, especially if you're using the images commercially.

"We're feeding client information into AI."

This is a confidentiality and privacy issue as much as an IP one. Know exactly what your AI tool does with the data once you've entered it, and whether that's consistent with what you've told your clients.

"We're developing an AI product."

If you're the one building the AI tool rather than just using one, ownership, liability and IP protection all need to be locked in early, before the product is out in the world and harder to unwind.

Resources

Blog articles — Deeper reading on AI, IP and business protection

AI case database — Track real-world AI copyright and IP disputes as they unfold

Podcast Episodes — Hear my thoughts on what's going on

Services

Whatever stage you're at with AI, from experimenting with ChatGPT to building your own product, here's how I help you get the legal side sorted before it becomes a problem.

Risk reviews

A look at how AI is actually being used across your business right now, so you know where the exposure is before it becomes a problem, not after.

AI governance

Setting up the structures and decision points your business needs so AI use is intentional, not ad hoc. This is the "who decides what, and how" layer that sits above your day-to-day policy.

AI policies

A practical, written policy covering what tools your team can use, what they can't paste into them, and who signs off before AI-generated content goes out under your name.

Contract reviews

Checking that your employment agreements, contractor terms and supplier contracts actually address AI-assisted work and AI-generated output, not just traditional deliverables.

AI procurement

Advice before you buy or subscribe to an AI-powered tool, so you understand what you're agreeing to on data, IP and liability before you're locked in.

Staff training

Helping your team understand the practical do's and don'ts of using AI at work, so good practice doesn't rely on everyone reading the policy document cover to cover.

Copyright advice

Working out what's actually protectable in what you or your business have created using AI, and where the gaps are.

Common Questions

Who owns AI output?

It depends on the tool and what you agreed to when you signed up. Most AI platforms' terms give you rights to use the output, but "use" isn't the same as "own," and ownership can be genuinely unclear under Australian copyright law when there's no human author behind the work. If AI-generated content is core to your business (a logo, key marketing copy, product design), it's worth checking exactly what you're standing on before you build too much on top of it.

Can AI infringe copyright?

Yes, on both sides. The output can echo existing copyrighted material closely enough to cause a problem, and the training data behind some tools is still contested territory globally. If you're using AI to generate anything customer-facing, especially images or written content close to a competitor's, it's worth a second look before it goes live.

What happens to my data when I use it in AI tools?

Once you feed information into a third-party AI platform, you often lose visibility over exactly where it goes and how long it's kept. This matters a lot if you're pasting in client details, draft contracts, or anything confidential. A quick check of the platform's terms (and a simple internal rule about what staff can and can't paste in) goes a long way.

Who owns the prompts my team writes?

Prompts themselves usually aren't protected the way a piece of writing or code is, but the know-how behind a genuinely well-built prompt library can still be commercially valuable to your business. If your team is building up a set of prompts that consistently produce great results, treat it the way you'd treat any other internal process worth protecting.

Does software built with AI assistance (like GitHub Copilot) still belong to us?

Generally, yes, if your contracts and employee agreements are set up properly, but this is exactly the kind of thing that gets assumed rather than checked. If a contractor or freelance developer used AI tools to help build your software, make sure your agreement with them actually covers IP assignment for AI-assisted work, not just "traditionally" written code.

Do we need an internal AI policy?

If more than one person in your business is using AI tools, yes. Even a short, practical policy (what tools are approved, what can't be pasted in, who signs off on AI-generated content before it's published) removes a lot of the guesswork and protects you if something goes wrong.

Not sure whether you actually own what you've built?

Take the free IP Risk & Ownership Audit, or book a strategy call if you're ready to talk it through.