French Startup IPFC Unveils AI Rights Model to Protect and Pay Creators

In the run up to the Cannes Film Festival, French entrepreneurs Emmanuel Lipszyc and Thomas Cohen have launched IPFC, an ambitious new startup aiming to protect and monetize creative IP consumed by generative AI systems.

Their model draws inspiration from rights management orgs such as SACEM, the French society of authors, composers and publishers which collects royalties and distributes them to creators. 

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IPFC, whose high-profile backers include Brut co-founder Guillaume Lacroix, will have a similar model as SACEM. But as individual works are increasingly difficult to trace once absorbed and recombined by AI models, the startup will “manage identities instead of managing works,” says Lipszyc.

Positioned as a “one-stop shop” for rights management, IPFC is targeting sectors including film, music, publishing, sports and influencer talent, with plans to expand into luxury and fashion before opening the model more broadly in 2027. The company allows creators, brands and public figures to register key attributes – including their name, image, voice and visual identity — and define how they can be used. IPFC then monitors AI-generated and social media content, flags potential infringements and can trigger takedowns or pre-litigation action.

By focusing on the use of the identity, rather than the work, the banner will be intervening upstream, before content is even generated. “The name is the only marker that allows you to know, with certainty, that a creative universe has been used,” explains Lipszyc. “It’s the only reliable entry point for protection and remuneration.”

According to the company, more than 30 million pieces of content are generated daily, and up to 90% of digital content could soon be AI-generated, at least in part, a shift that Lipszyc calls “spectacular” in both scale and speed. “We’re facing a form of chaos. Creators and the creative industries have completely lost control of their image,” he says. The startup will therefore look to “restore clear rules in a system that currently has none.”

Cohen says the company has built an infrastructure that protects creators while allowing platforms to access these creative universes in a transparent, regulated and paid way. “A licensed product is always going to be more attractive than something operating in a legal gray zone.”

IPFC is already in advanced discussions with one of the world’s top AI platforms, though no deals have yet been finalized.

“There’s a race to be the first to offer licensed AI. And the players who don’t will lose market share,” says Cohen. “We’re in a Napster moment. Unregulated use can’t last. What comes next is a regulated ecosystem, like Spotify was for music.”