An Executive Voices Blog by Matthieu Quiniou, IP/IT Attorney at D&A Partners

In just a few months, a new category of cultural assets has emerged in the form of viral meme videos on TikTok. These videos feature hybrid characters, animals, fruits, or anthropomorphic accessories with absurd names and they have been dubbed “Brainrot.”

What makes them unique? A portion of this content is created with the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI).

This phenomenon is shaking up traditional licensing norms. Brainrot content is not produced by an established studio but by amateur or professional creators who use AI tools to help them design their characters, develop their worlds and storylines, and produce videos.

These two distinct features, decentralization in creation and the use of AI, make this phenomenon particularly challenging for licensing professionals to navigate, both in determining the rights attached to this content and in identifying the rights holders.

The Brainrot Phenomenon

Brainrot should not be dismissed as mere fleeting viral content. In many cases, these videos constitute genuine, structured creative universes built on recurring elements, (whether or not created with AI) such as an original name, visual identity, or signature sound.

Within a few weeks, some characters achieve a level of fame comparable to that of traditional licensed characters and universes, with a strong capacity for community appropriation and transnational virality that reaches, for certain characters, several hundred million views on TikTok. This dynamic rapidly creates opportunities for exploitation in terms of merchandise, collaborations, integrations into video games, sponsored content, or even spin-off content series.

However, this rise in value often outpaces the legal structuring of the asset by its creators. Whereas traditional licenses rely on clear chains of rights, viral content created with AI assistance emerges in a fragmented environment.

Protecting AI-Generated Content

The presence of AI in the creative process is often perceived as an obstacle to protection and, by extension, to licensing. In practice, this view is overly simplistic.

On the one hand, AI most often acts as a tool for assisted creation, just like other technologies used in the creative industries, such as cameras or 3D design software. On the other hand, legal value does not rest solely on the mere generation of content, but on the entirety of the choices made (including selection, artistic direction, editing, contextualization, etc.).

The decisive question is not so much whether content was generated by AI, but to what extent an identifiable human contribution led to the final result. On this point, legal and jurisprudential criteria vary from one country to another.

Computer-assisted creations have been protected by intellectual property law in England since 1988 (CDPA Art. 9(3)) and China was among the first jurisdictions to issue rulings directly related to AI-generated content, such as the Li v. Liu case in 2023, which ruled in favor of the creator of AI-generated content against an infringer. In the European Union, Italy has recently taken a leading position on this issue with its new AI legislation, which took effect in October 2025, explicitly introducing the possibility of AI-generated works being protected by copyright provided that the author’s intellectual contribution can be identified.

Some countries, such as the United States, remain resistant, however, even though partial protections for editorial layout and image arrangements have already been granted by the U.S. Copyright Office.

The legal tools available are not limited to copyright on the AI-generated portion, however, and this is precisely what makes these assets clearly exploitable in practice despite the uncertainties surrounding AI.

The names of the Brainrot characters were generally created without the use of AI during the conceptualization phase and, in most cases, consist of absurd and original neologisms. As such, they may be eligible for independent protection under copyright law for titles and names of works, regardless of any questions regarding the generation of the images by AI.

Trademark protection (whether word marks or figurative marks incorporating the character) also serves as a useful complementary form of protection, as it secures a distinctive sign across specific classes of goods and services without the AI issue coming into play.

Finally, actions based on unfair competition and free-riding offer complementary tools particularly suited to these ecosystems. These actions make it possible to sanction those who, without spending a dime, capitalize on the reputation and audience built by a creator, even in the absence of formally registered rights or recognition of a copyright-protected work. French case law on this matter is well-established and naturally applies to viral universes and characters created with the assistance of AI, whose economic value is evident.

Legitimacy in Exploitation

In the Brainrot ecosystem, virality creates an illusion of openness. Because a character circulates widely or was not created by a well-known studio, some actors mistakenly consider it to be freely available for appropriation. This is a mistake.

The creators of this content face third party attempts to register trademarks for characters that have gone viral without any connection to the original creators, studios or intermediaries purporting to grant licenses without having a secure chain of rights, unauthorized merchandise appearing on marketplaces without authorization, and universes being reproduced or adapted to capture the existing audience.

This confusion often has the effect of rendering creators invisible, to the benefit of the most organized and active infringers. This phenomenon is amplified by the decentralized nature of the creations, by the uncertainties and ambiguities surrounding the protection of AI-generated content, and by the difficulty for individual creators to define an effective licensing strategy.

Legitimacy therefore rests on several cumulative criteria, including prior creation, the ability to demonstrate a creative contribution, consistency in the exploitation of the universe, and the implementation of an active legal strategy.

The New Role of Rights Holders

In this environment, rights holders cannot adopt a passive stance. Value lies not only in creation but in the ability to demonstrate prior creation, creative contribution, consistency within the universe and, above all, the ability to quickly build an effective enforcement and commercial network to counter attempts by third parties to appropriate the work.

For partners interested in exploiting these licenses, this involves clearly identifying creators, consolidating rights, regulating uses, and defining a coherent scope of exploitation.

In this context, licensing goes beyond its traditional role of monetization. It becomes a tool for establishing order to recognize legitimate partners, regulate exploitation, and exclude opportunistic initiatives. It enables the transformation of a volatile audience into a sustainable asset.

For industry players and professionals, this requires adapting their practices, integrating new rights chains, and working more closely with creators who are often decentralized.

Looking Forward

The Brainrot phenomenon is still recent, but several trends are emerging regarding licensing practices in this rapidly growing field.

It is often digital players who were the first to identify legitimate rights holders, even when they are decentralized. This includes eCommerce operators working directly with creators identified on social media, video game studios, and streaming platforms.

Mementum Lab, a structure bringing together digital artists, IP researchers, and specialized attorneys, has been at the forefront of this shift, securing exclusive representation of the majority of the most recognized Brainrot creators and building a documented legal framework designed to support credible, enforceable licensing at scale. Conversely, opportunistic approaches relying on intermediaries with no legitimate connection to the creators expose companies to growing legal and commercial risks, especially as the structuring of rights accelerates.

The challenge for more traditional players in the licensing industry is now clear: they must not remain on the sidelines of these new forms of creation but rather learn to identify the right partners and integrate into rights chains suited to these ecosystems. Otherwise, they risk positioning themselves too late or alongside the wrong partners.

In a world where virality precedes structuring, the ability to recognize and support legitimate rights holders becomes a decisive competitive advantage.

D&A Partners is a French full-service law firm dedicated to innovative technologies including blockchain, Web3, AI and more. The team advises startups, scale-ups, and leading institutions on complex regulatory, transactional, and litigation matters.