On the evening of December 10th, Disney's lawyers fired off a cease-and-desist letter to Google. The accusation: copyright infringement on a "massive scale." Google's AI tools — Veo, Imagen, Gemini, even YouTube — had been churning out Disney characters without permission. Disney had been raising concerns for months. Nothing changed. "If anything, Google's infringement has only increased during that time," the letter states.

Google's response? A spokesperson said they have a "longstanding and mutually beneficial relationship with Disney" and will "continue to engage with them."

Yeah, O.K. That's why you got served.

Twelve hours later, on December 11th, Disney announced a $1 billion investment in OpenAI.

Not entirely a coincidence, now is it?

OpenAI gets a three-year licensing agreement covering more than 200 characters across Disney, Marvel, Pixar, and Star Wars. Starting early 2026, users will be able to generate AI videos and images featuring Mickey Mouse, Darth Vader, Iron Man, Elsa, Woody — the crown jewels, handed over to an AI platform on purpose.

Google gets legal threats demanding they "immediately cease" all use of Disney's copyrighted works and implement technological measures to prevent future infringement. Disney's legal team accused them of operating as a "virtual vending machine" for Disney characters — and called out the Gemini logo appearing on infringing images, "falsely implying" Disney had authorized it.

Bold move, putting your logo on someone else's IP without asking.

The difference between OpenAI and Google? Permission. Payment. Partnership.

Google had months to come to the table. They chose not to. Now they're learning what "no" sounds like when it comes from Disney's legal department — while OpenAI builds the future of fan content with Mickey Mouse.

Here's the quote from Disney's CEO, and it's worth reading closely:

That's not anti-AI rhetoric. That's a company staking out its position: we'll play ball, but only on terms that protect what we've built.

In his CNBC interview, Iger was even more direct. Asked if the deal threatens creators, he said: "In fact, the opposite. I think it honors them and respects them, in part because there's a license fee associated with it."

Translation: You want to play with our toys? Pay up. 😅

This isn't a free-for-all. Disney built real guardrails:

What's included: Over 200 animated, masked, and creature characters — plus costumes, props, vehicles, and iconic environments. Think lightsabers, the Millennium Falcon, Groot.

What's not: Any talent likenesses or voices. You can make a video with Woody, but you won't hear Tom Hanks. Disney protected their talent relationships while monetizing the characters. That's not an accident.

Governance: Disney and OpenAI created a joint steering committee that monitors user creations against a detailed "brand appendix" — essentially a list of everything Disney doesn't want its characters associated with. Axios reported this gives Disney significant ownership rights over content created with its IP.

Distribution: The best user-generated Sora videos may actually appear on Disney+. That's not tolerance — that's turning fan creativity into content strategy.

Internal adoption: Disney becomes a "major customer" of OpenAI, using their APIs internally and deploying ChatGPT for employees across the company.

Disney just published the playbook for every brand sitting on valuable IP.

If you have content, brand assets, proprietary data, or customer relationships worth protecting — you have something AI companies want. The question is whether you're going to monetize it or watch it get scraped without your permission.

Path one (OpenAI): Engage early, negotiate hard, build governance into the deal, and walk away with equity, licensing fees, and control. Disney gets paid. Disney maintains creative oversight. Disney turns user-generated content into a Disney+ feature. Everyone wins — on Disney's terms.

Path two (Google): Ignore the problem, assume your "longstanding relationship" will protect you, and wake up to a cease-and-desist letter while your competitor signs the deal you should have been negotiating.

Google had months to come to the table. Now they're playing defense.

For brand leaders, the action items are clear:

The AI licensing era isn't coming. It's here. The companies that thrive won't be the ones who resist the longest or move the fastest — they'll be the ones who show up to the negotiation knowing exactly what they have.

Disney knew. Do you?

Every leader faces the same challenge: getting people to actually absorb what you're saying - in a world of overflowing inboxes, half-read Slacks, and meetings about meetings.

Smart Brevity is the methodology Axios HQ built to solve this. It's a system for communicating with clarity, respect, and precision — whether you're writing to your board, your team, or your entire organization.

Join our free 60-minute Open House to learn how it works and see it in action.

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What it is: A no-code platform for building and deploying AI agents — chat and voice — without needing to understand the internals of model fine-tuning.

Why I'm featuring it: Voiceflow has become a staple in my team's toolbox. We're using it to deploy AI agents for brands, particularly for customer education on websites where products are complex and support teams are stretched thin.

Customer support is eating your team alive. You're drowning in silly, repetitive tickets — password resets, order status, "how do I..." questions — your support team spends 60% of their time on the same 10 issues.

Voiceflow lets you build an AI agent that handles the repetitive stuff (they claim 70% resolution rates), integrates directly with Zendesk, and hands off to live agents when things get complicated. Trilogy automated 60% of their L1 and L2 tickets across 90+ products. Roam Auto saved 30 hours a week.

Your product is complex and prospects drop off. You sell something that requires explanation — software, financial products, technical equipment — and people bounce before they understand it.

An in-app copilot trained on your product catalog and docs can guide users through the buying journey without waiting for a sales call.

Your contact center needs voice AI. Phone support is expensive, and your hold times are a customer experience problem.

Voiceflow builds voice AI agents that go beyond basic IVR menus — actual conversational agents that can answer questions, complete tasks, and escalate intelligently. Companies like StubHub and Turo are using it.

You need to onboard users without hand-holding. New customers churn because they never figured out how to use your product.

An AI agent can walk them through setup, answer questions in context, and get them to their first win faster than documentation ever could.

Knowledge Base — Upload your docs, PDFs, URLs, product specs. The AI agent learns your business and responds accurately. No fine-tuning required.

Accessible setup — Product teams, not just developers, can build and iterate. We've gone from concept to deployed agent in days.

UI customization — The default chat widget works fine, but you also get real control over look and feel without building from scratch.

Custom voices via ElevenLabs — Your AI agent can sound like your brand instead of a generic assistant.

LLM-agnostic — Works with GPT-4, Claude, Gemini, and others. Bring your own model if your enterprise has specific requirements.

Voiceflow out of the box is genuinely capable. But like any platform, there's a gap between functional and exceptional.

If you want a fully custom chat interface beyond the default widget — think custom animations, unique embed scenarios, or deep integration into your existing web experience — you'll need someone comfortable with APIs and frontend development.

Same goes for complex integrations. Connecting your agent to CRMs, databases, payment systems, or triggering multi-step workflows requires technical know-how. Voiceflow supports it, but building it right takes experience.

Think of it like Shopify. You can build a great store yourself. But if you haven't done it before, a specialist gets you to "done well" faster and avoids the trial-and-error tax.

voiceflow.com

This is the first in a series of deep dives on tools we actually use and implement for clients. I'm putting together an in-depth review of Voiceflow — including implementation tips, tricks we've learned, and how to get the most out of it. More tools to follow.

Don’t "wait and see".

Disney clearly showed us when you are proactive and move deliberately, you can be part of shaping the future of AI and capitalize on your valuable IP and brand equity.

While I’m no lawyer, I’d also encourage you to build robust policies around AI for your organization and ensure that your agreements with AI vendors have a clear line on what data and information they can use for training - IF any.

Keep reading and learning and, LEAD the AI Revolution!

Hashi & The Context Window Team!