TL;DR

Axel Scheffler, who has illustrated The Gruffalo since 1999, told BBC London in an interview published on 30 October that he is “seriously considering” going to court against AI firms he accuses of copying his work. “I’ve been in touch with a lawyer in Germany,” he said, choosing a country where he believes courts are friendlier to creators, but has not named a target. The culture department, DCMS, said copyright law must protect Britain’s creative strengths while allowing AI to grow.

”My mouse, my Gruffalo”

Scheffler, a south Londoner without a smartphone, said he had paid AI little attention until he was shown pictures placing his characters in Silicon Valley and at Oktoberfest. “It’s clearly my mouse, my Gruffalo, as close as they can do it,” he said, calling the results “a clear theft of copyright”. The books, written by Julia Donaldson, have passed 18 million sales globally. Scheffler said any case would aim to protect creators rather than win him compensation. “I just want them to stop,” he said.

Why Germany

Lewis Silkin IP lawyer Nick Buckland told the BBC that German courts have twice ruled for music collecting societies that showed AI companies had reproduced song lyrics word for word. He cautioned that Scheffler would still have to prove infringement, and set out the defence AI firms rely on: “Generative AI doesn’t copy, it trains.”

A test closer to Scheffler’s is already under way. Penguin Random House and author-illustrator Ingo Siegner are suing OpenAI in Germany, alleging it copied the children’s character Der kleine Drache Kokosnuss, with a ruling from the Munich Regional Court due in spring 2027. OpenAI said it was in “productive conversations with rightsholders around the world” and that copyright holders can raise disputes with it directly.

The UK position

Buckland described the government as stuck between protecting the creative industries and opening up material for AI development, calling it a “difficult choice”. The government said it does not accept that supporting both sectors is a contradiction, and DCMS said it had consulted creatives, AI firms, unions and academics.

Looking Forward

No decision has been taken: Scheffler and his publishers are weighing whether to sue. In our view, a London-based illustrator looking to a German court because he sees the EU as friendlier to creators says something about how the UK’s copyright debate looks from the creative side, and the Munich ruling next spring could indicate whether a character, rather than a verbatim lyric, can carry an infringement claim. It adds to a run of UK creative voices pressing on AI, such as Jack Thorne’s call to treat undeclared AI scripts as fraud.