WILMINGTON, DE — Artificial intelligence is accelerating online intellectual property infringement and adding pressure to corporate legal teams already struggling with enforcement, according to a CSC survey of senior IP executives released as businesses prepare for an expansion of internet domain names.
Ninety percent of respondents said AI-enabled systems are increasing the frequency of online IP infringements, while 96% expressed concern about infringement threats overall.
CSC surveyed 300 senior executives specializing in IP law during the second quarter of 2026, including general counsels, chief legal officers and chief technology officers, for its State of Online IP Risk 2026 report.
Impersonation ranked as the most concerning type of online infringement, cited by 40% of respondents. Phishing and domain-name abuse followed at 39% each.
Legal and technology teams also reported operational constraints in responding to those threats. Slow enforcement processes were cited by 73% as a leading challenge, followed by small teams or insufficient dedicated staff at 65% and high infringement volumes at 64%.
Twenty-seven percent reported a significant increase in IP infringements affecting their organizations during the previous 12 months. Another 29% expect a significant increase over the next year.
Regulatory issues and penalties were identified by 66% as a significant consequence of infringement. Fifty-nine percent said they outsource as much as half of their infringement-monitoring activity to specialist providers.
Companies are also deploying the technology contributing to the problem as part of their defenses. Twenty-six percent of respondents said they extensively use AI for IP protection, while 70% reported moderate use.
The findings come as companies prepare for an expansion of the domain-name system following the Aug. 12 close of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers’ latest application round for generic top-level domains.
The potential cost of defensively registering domains across new top-level domains was the leading concern about that expansion, cited by 60% of respondents. Cybersquatting or brand-infringing registrations using new extensions concerned 58%.
“Beyond brand damage, online IP infringements cause a variety of consequences for businesses today, including lost revenue, customer harm, and regulatory exposure,” Elliott Champion, CSC’s global product director for brand protection, said.
Champion said relying solely on defensive domain registrations would become more expensive as the namespace expands, calling for companies to combine risk-based registrations with monitoring, blocking, enforcement and abuse mitigation.
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