ADR-002 — Professor T-Rex owned IP + personalizable guide

Status: Accepted · Date: 2026-06-02

Context

The teaching guide is one of the three personalization axes (the who). The original framing leaned on "owned AI IP / franchise" as a moat. Research established a hard legal fact: AI-generated characters are uncopyrightable [FACT — US Copyright Office], so an AI-generated mascot carries no defensible IP value. Meanwhile a recurring hero/character is the one switching-cost moat none of the personalized-book competitors have.

Decision

• The signature guide is Professor T-Rex — a human-authored, copyright-registered, trademarked CurioQuest character. It is the default guide and the face of the brand (marketing, app, merch, recurring host across the universe).
• The in-story guide is personalizable — the family may swap in a favorite-animal "professor," a parent, or a custom hero per book (opt-in, replaces Professor T-Rex for that book).
• The franchise IP is human-created; AI only assists per-book rendering, keeping the core IP legally ownable.

Rationale

Personalization is a feature; the owned, registered character is what carries franchise and merch value and survives the uncopyrightable-AI-art fact. Human-authored + registered IP is the only version of "owned IP" the research rates as MOD–HIGH defensibility. The personalizable guide preserves the product's emotional personalization (e.g. a father as his son's guide) without diluting the brand asset.

Source / evidence

• Project-Objective.md §4 (Pillar 1), §6, §8, §12
• Research_Synthesis.md §7, §18 — [FACT] AI art uncopyrightable (US Copyright Office); human-made registered IP = the fix
• Overview — the guide