WHETHER PROMPT IS AN OBJECT OF COPYRIGHT: PROS AND CONS

Keywords: prompt, copyright objects, intellectual property

Abstract

Results, obtained by users when accessing various types of programs, applications, and services based on the use of artificial intelligence technologies, are usually referred to as “content generated by artificial intelligence”, which includes text, images, audio, and video. No less research interest is aroused by the request of a human user, which initiates the generation of the corresponding content by artificial intelligence, for which the English term “prompt” is used in most cases. It is the prompt (user request) that becomes the starting point for the creation of objects by artificial intelligence that are outwardly extremely similar to objects of intellectual property rights. It has become generally accepted that the most relevant results to a user’s request can be generated by artificial intelligence only if there is a creative approach to creating the prompt itself, which has put on the agenda the question of whether a prompt can be protected by the norms of intellectual property law as an object of intellectual rights. This question has not only theoretical but also practical significance, since today entire databases and libraries of successful prompts are created that have serious economic value.

This article has been prepared in the development of a relatively recent and gaining momentum discussion about the admissibility of classifying user prompts (requests) as objects of copyright. The authors of this article, adhering to diametrically opposed views on the designated issue, decided to combine their arguments explaining their positions in one article in an effort to help lawyers find the right answer to the question posed. The approach used in this article does not allow us to unambiguously characterize the legal nature of the prompt, but it does provide additional food for thought for subsequent research in the area under consideration.

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Author Biographies

Natalia Nikolaevna KOVALEVA, National Research University “Higher School of Economics”, Moscow, Russian Federation

N.N. Kovaleva — Head of the Digital Law and Bio-Law Department of the Faculty of Law at the National Research University Higher School of Economics, Doctor of Legal Sciences, Professor

Marina Alexandrovna ROZHKOVA, Institute of Legislation and Comparative Law under the Government, Russian State Academy of Intellectual Property, Moscow, Russia

M.A. Rozhkova — IP CLUB President, Chief Researcher at the Institute of Legislation and Comparative Law under the Government of the Russian Federation, Professor of the Russian State Academy of Intellectual Property, Doctor of Legal Sciences

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Published
2025-10-31