A lawsuit filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California has placed a viral AI-generated meme character at the center of a legal battle over intellectual property rights and the boundaries of human authorship in the age of generative AI.

The character, known as Tung Tung Tung Sahur or Triple T, was created in 2025 by an Indonesian teenager using OpenAI’s image-generation tool. Inspired by a kentongan, a traditional drum used to wake Muslims for suhoor during Ramadan, the character is depicted as a smiling, stick-like figure with a vacant stare. It belongs to a genre of internet memes referred to as “Italian brain rot,” which features surreal, AI-generated characters.

Triple T has gained widespread popularity across platforms such as YouTube and TikTok, accumulating hundreds of millions of views. The character has been embraced by online communities, inspiring fan art, animations, cosplay, and merchandise including plush toys, perfume, and stickers. It is also set to appear as a skin in the popular video game Fortnite.

The dispute emerged when Do Big Studios, the creators of the Roblox game "Steal a Brainrot," used Triple T in their game. In September 2025, Mementum, a French creative agency representing the original creator under the pseudonym Noxa, issued a cease and desist letter demanding the removal of the character. After initial negotiations failed, the game’s developers sued Mementum, asserting that the character could not be copyrighted due to its AI-assisted creation.

Mementum’s legal position rests on the argument that the character’s originator holds rights to its commercial use. The agency, co-founded by Eben Jeda, describes its mission as supporting internet-native creators who are often excluded from profiting from their work. Jeda emphasized that the case reflects a broader shift in digital creativity, where content can achieve global reach almost instantly, yet creators remain economically marginalized.

Opponents of exclusive ownership argue that meme characters like Triple T are inherently collective in nature. Fabian Mosele, a content creator specializing in brain rot media, contended that such characters emerge from communal participation and should not be controlled by a single individual. "There are a ton of creators who made these characters come to life," Mosele said. "Before, they were really just images. Having been part of making the virality of these characters, to gatekeep it to the original prompter of this character doesn’t seem right."

The legal arguments hinge on the definition of human authorship under U.S. copyright law. The U.S. Copyright Office has stated that copyright protection applies only to works created by human authors, even when AI tools are used in the process. However, it has not established a clear standard for determining when AI-assisted work qualifies for protection, leaving such determinations to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

According to court filings, Triple T was generated in approximately 15 minutes using seven text prompts. These included instructions such as "draw a pentagonal sahur with a face and legs," followed by refinements specifying "human face," "no hands," and "legs like a human." Legal representatives for Do Big Studios argue that such minimal human input does not constitute sufficient authorship to justify copyright claims.

Steven Stein, a lawyer representing Mementum, described the case as part of a broader effort to establish legal frameworks for AI-generated content in an unregulated digital landscape. "It is less about approaching it from a copyright law standpoint, and more about approaching it from the standpoint of – in this new wild west, where works are created with the involvement of AI, what can you do to make it so they are protectable under intellectual property law?"

The case has drawn attention from legal scholars who suggest it could set precedents for how AI-generated content is treated under intellectual property law. James Grimmelmann, a professor at Cornell Tech and Cornell Law School, noted that the outcome could either clarify existing legal ambiguities or contribute to evolving norms around AI use in creative fields.

Enforcement complexities are further complicated by the character’s international footprint. Although created by an Indonesian creator and popularized in Latin America, Triple T is now associated with a French agency and is involved in litigation in the United States. Mementum has pursued takedown requests under the EU’s Digital Services Act and later filed a trademark claim in the U.S., despite not holding a registered trademark there.

The cultural significance of Triple T has also been noted in commentary on internet culture. Content creator Adam Aleksic observed that the intense focus on origins reflects the mythologized status of meme characters within online communities. "There’s this idea of origination when it comes to Tung Tung Tung Sahur – somehow out of the void, some memes are able to emerge into the cultural forefront," he said. "Triple T is a tool for you to tell your narrative, broadly, across the entire internet."

As the case proceeds, it underscores the growing tension between technological innovation, creative expression, and legal frameworks designed for a pre-AI era. The resolution may influence not only the future of meme-based characters but also how ownership and authorship are defined in an increasingly automated creative landscape.