ImageRights International, a technology company specializing in visual asset copyright protection since 2009, has expanded into the legal technology market with the introduction of ImageRights for Law Firms. This new platform is designed to provide law firms and corporate legal departments with the tools necessary to directly safeguard clients’ copyrighted visual works, including photographs, illustrations, digital art, and other visual assets.
The company formally announced the product launch at the annual meeting of The Copyright Society of the USA in Chicago.
ImageRights for Law Firms utilizes proprietary, cloud-based technology to continuously scan the internet for unauthorized use of client images and automatically gather evidence for firms to employ in pursuing legal remedies. This powerful technology can identify matches even when the client’s images have been significantly altered. The system detects images that have been radically cropped, had colors changed or removed, been altered with text or image overlays, or have been flipped or incorporated into a collage.
While the platform does not distinguish between authorized and unauthorized uses, it consistently monitors the internet and deposits all discovered copies into a review platform. The company’s artificial intelligence then sorts, filters, and ranks the images, allowing the client or attorney to efficiently review them and flag any unauthorized usage.
Once an image is identified as potentially infringing, the attorney can request a time and date-stamped screenshot. The product collects and securely stores this evidence, along with the relevant server IP information. The attorney can then download the collected images with a single action, for direct use or for importation into a case management system.
The core of this new platform is the same AI search technology that has served visual artists through ImageRights’ original product since 2009. The company has historically maintained an international network of attorneys to whom artists can be referred for copyright protection services. Over the years, many of these law firms used the artists’ platform and subsequently requested that the company develop a specialized version tailored for law firm use to serve their own client base.
Joe G. Naylor, ImageRights’ cofounder and chief executive officer, elaborated on the company’s motivation: “ImageRights has partnered with scores of IP law firms over the past decade. They have often asked if we could provide specialized searches for copyright infringement cases they were litigating or even just run a general search for one of their clients.” He continued, “It became clear that there was an opportunity to leverage the incredible technology we have developed and expertise in identifying potential infringement claims and providing that directly to IP law firms and in-house legal teams.”
The service starts at $\$195$ a month. Deployment is straightforward, requiring users to simply sign up for an account and begin adding clients. The company provides an introductory training session, though it notes that the platform is so intuitive that the training typically takes only 20 minutes.
Naylor cofounded ImageRights with Ted VanCleave, a fine art photographer and the company’s executive vice president. ImageRights asserts that it protects over 20 million client images and digital assets globally for professional photographers, photo agencies, and media companies. It also states it has registered more than 1 million images with the U.S. Copyright Office on behalf of its clients. The company’s systems process and analyze more than three billion images annually.
Read more about ImageRights for Law Firms at the Human&Legal Legal Technology Directory.
