Guide
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Cristian Vicașiu, Velrun Studios, Bucharest
Who owns an AI-generated commercial? Rights, usage and disclosure in the EU
The short answer
With Velrun you own the delivered films once the final payment clears and may run them anywhere. What copyright law protects in a wholly AI-generated image is still unsettled in the EU and the US, so ownership is set by contract and by the human authorship in the script, boards and edit. The EU AI Act's transparency rules for AI-generated content apply from August 2026; label where required and where in doubt.
What you get from us
A licence to the delivered films that is exclusive, perpetual and worldwide, for any channel, once the final payment clears. The script, the boards and the edit are human work and are assigned to you with the film.
What the law is still deciding
Courts and copyright offices in the EU and the US have said that output with no human authorship is not protected by copyright. A boarded, directed and edited film has human authorship in it; a raw generated clip may not. Do not rely on registering a generated clip on its own. This is one reason the boards exist.
Disclosure
The EU AI Act requires that AI-generated or manipulated content that could be mistaken for real is labelled, with the transparency obligations applying from 2 August 2026. Platforms have their own rules, and Meta and YouTube ask advertisers to flag realistic AI content. Our position is simple: label where the rules require it, and label where a reasonable viewer would feel misled without it.
Likenesses and music
A real person’s face or voice needs their written consent. Licensed music is licensed separately; generated or library music is included. Product renders you give us stay yours.
Questions
Can I register the film as a trademark or copyright?
Ask your lawyer with the specific film. The human-authored parts strengthen the case; a raw clip alone weakens it.
Do you keep the right to show the work?
We ask to show frames in our portfolio; if the campaign is confidential, say so and we will not.
Have a product or a story? Send the brief and get a scoped quote back, no call needed.