Ownership and Commercial Exploitation of Digital Avatars: An Intellectual Property Perspective

it explains that while avatars have long existed in digital worlds, AI has made them attract new attention by producing lifelike, photorealistic models of real people, raising legal issues around misattribution of avatar ownership. It notes that the US and EU recognize some protection for avatars built from copyrighted or algorithmically generated material, but that the scope of that protection and its exemptions vary, and that countries differ — some protecting avatars under novel IP rights, others under general personality or publicity rights.