An international legal dispute is unfolding in a US court concerning the ownership of an AI-generated character, Tung Tung Tung Sahur, also known as Triple T. The character, created in 2025 by an Indonesian teen using OpenAI's image-generation tool, has become a global sensation across online video platforms and merchandise.
The lawsuit, filed in the US district court's northern district of California, pits games company Spyder Games LLC and Speedy Simulator Gaming LLC (owners of Do Big Studios) against French creative agency Mementum, which represents the character's creator. Do Big Studios released a game featuring the character, leading to a cease and desist letter from Mementum in September 2025. Spyder and Speedy subsequently sued Mementum, arguing that copyright protection requires human authorship and AI-generated material does not qualify.
US copyright law applies only to human-made creations, but AI is challenging its interpretation. A 2025 report from the United States Copyright Office stated that copyright protects "original expression" in human-authored work, even if it includes AI-generated material, but "does not extend to purely AI-generated material, or material where there is insufficient human control over the expressive elements." The report notes that whether human contributions to AI-generated outputs are sufficient for authorship must be analyzed on a case-by-case basis.
Do Big argues that the human intervention in Tung Tung Tung Sahur's creation, which involved seven prompts over 15 minutes, is not sufficient for ownership. Mementum, a French company, is pursuing a global strategy, having successfully issued a takedown request under the EU's Digital Services Act for the character's removal from Do Big's game, and then countersuing in the United States for trademark infringement.