IP Law Daily, COPYRIGHT NEWS: Book publisher used AI to replicate book cover artwork, a new lawsuit alleges, (Jun 23, 2025)

By Matthew Hersh, J.D.

Hachette Book Group allegedly purloined the “look and feel” of the originals.

A leading book publisher used “techniques such as artificial intelligence” to replicate the artwork of a freelance artist, a new federal complaint alleges. The lawsuit, filed in the Southern District of New York, alleges that the publisher purloined the distinctive features of a book cover that he submitted and used them to adorn the cover of dozens of books by the same best-selling novelist (Santora v. Hachette Book Group, Inc., No. 7:25-cv-05114 (S.D.N.Y. filed Jun. 18, 2025)).

The lawsuit was brought by artist Robert Santora, a creative designer and illustrator who, according to his LinkedIn profile, has “designed and created brands for best selling authors and major retailers” for many decades. The lawsuit takes aim at Hachette Book Group, the now French-owned book publisher that, along with along with Holtzbrinck/Macmillan, Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, and Simon & Schuster, is considered one of the “big five” publishing houses in the world.

The lawsuit revolves around the novels of Sandra Brown, the author of over 80 novels and dozens of York Times bestsellers, including Out of Nowhere, Overkill, Blind Tiger, Thick as Thieves, Seeing Red, Outfox, Tailspin, Seeing Red, Sting, and Mean Streak. The lawsuit alleges that Hachette engaged the creative designer to redesign the covers for the Sandra Brown repertoire, which up to that point included differing styles and stock photographs “with no unified look and feel.” But after the author submitted his designs, the lawsuit claims, the publisher used “artificial intelligence” and other techniques to replicate them in other book covers for the same author.

The lawsuit appears to focus not on the taking of specific wording or imagery but rather on a compilation of different artistic components. The artwork Santora created, the complaint recites, “included the author’s name in large full capital letters with a unified sans-serif font that has a streamlined look and feel while making a bold and dynamic statement of the author.” That distinctive “look and feel,” the complaint asserts, is also characterized by “[t]he author’s name being highly dominant and positioned in the upper section of the illustration with the book title in large type proximately in the lower half of the illustration with a depiction of a soft background image.”

The lawsuit demands injunctive relief, attorney fees and damages, and destruction of all merchandise containing the allegedly infringing works.

The Case is No. 7:25-cv-05114.

Judge: Roman, N.

Attorneys: Gerard Francis Dunne (Law Office of Gerard F. Dunne, PC) for Robert E. Santora.

Companies: Hachette Book Group, Inc.

News: AINews Copyright TechnologyInternet NewYorkNews GCNNews