Wuhan court counts AI token and tool-licensing costs in a copyright damages award for the first time
The court treated an AI-assisted short drama as a protected audiovisual work because employees made creative choices at every stage.
A court in Wuhan, China, has for the first time included token usage and AI tool licensing fees when calculating copyright damages, The Decoder reports, citing the National Law Review. The dispute involved a one-hour short drama that a company produced with AI tools in early 2026 and published on platforms including WeChat. One day later, another company copied it, gave it a new title and inserted ads. The court ruled that the drama was a protectable audiovisual work because employees had made their own creative decisions at every stage, including the script, prompt design, selection of AI outputs and final editing. It described the AI as just a tool. Alongside the AI-specific production costs, the court weighed traditional factors such as runtime, distribution reach and how long the infringement lasted. It awarded the plaintiff 20,000 RMB, about $2,900, and recommended that creators keep records such as scripts, prompt drafts and project files. The ruling adds to China's growing copyright protection for AI-assisted works, following a 2023 Beijing decision that granted protection to an AI-generated image. For studios producing content with AI, it suggests that documenting human creative input, and the money spent on AI tools, can affect both whether a work is protected and how much a court awards.