A majority of senior legal leaders are concerned about a rise in intellectual property infringements driven by AI, according to research commissioned by CSC.
The report – IP Frontiers Report 2025: Proactive Security Against IP Infringement – found that nine in 10 legal professionals are concerned about the threat of online IP infringements, with 85% reporting an increase in infringements over the past 12 months and 90% expecting more over the coming year.
Legal professionals said the most common forms of IP infringement are counterfeiting, trademark abuse and brand impersonation. Some 88% of respondents said AI-enabled systems are fuelling the rise in infringement activity, while 93% are concerned that AI-generated fake assets such as logos, images and content could cause significant harm to their business.
Ihab Shraim, chief technology officer in CSC’s digital brand services division, said: “With how much commerce and communication takes place online, a brand’s reputation is built on its online presence and guarding it is a responsibility companies should take seriously.”
The report found that fake domain names are often the first-step counterfeiters and brand impersonators deploy in large-scale infringement campaigns. While 76% of respondents said their organisations have a domain management strategy in place, only 16% said their legal teams have total visibility into how their portfolios are managed, exposing them to potential fraud risk.
Shraim added: “There’s a massive influx of sophisticated threat vectors targeting corporations, and the easiest targets are domain names and IP. In the past, fraudsters would send hundreds of thousands of phishing emails hoping that 2% or 3% would respond. Today, fraudulent activity is more targeted and comes with a much higher rate of success, particularly as AI quickly becomes a major accelerant.”
To counter these risks, 67% of respondents said they expect to see significant increases in brand protection and IP enforcement budgets over the next three years, while 56% say they are outsourcing some of their monitoring efforts to track infringement.
Ian McConnel, chief legal officer at CSC, said: “Reactive defences are no longer enough. Fraudsters exploit low-cost, fast-moving tools to impersonate brands at scale. As AI adoption expands the avenues for infringement, companies that adopt proactive, multi-layered protection – integrating legal, IT and security teams, and partnering with trusted corporate registrars – will be best positioned to safeguard brand reputation in the AI era.”
A report in January from Cornerstone Research and Stanford Law School’s Securities Class Action Clearinghouse found that AI-related filings drove an increase in US securities class action lawsuits in 2024, while Baker McKenzie’s annual disputes survey in January found that in-house counsel are most concerned about growing cyber and AI disputes risk.
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