Creating and Protecting Your IP in the Age of AI with Sean Branagan

When almost anyone can publish, broadcast or create with AI, what makes their work worth paying attention to — and worth paying for?

In this episode of Interlinks, I’m joined by Sean Branagan, co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer of Chapter IP and Director of the Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship at Syracuse University’s S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.

Sean brings together a career in media, technology, marketing, entrepreneurship and education to explore the opportunities and commercial challenges of the creator economy. In our conversation, we explore: Sean’s journey from magazine publishing into technology, business creation and teaching creative entrepreneurship. The democratisation of media: what happens when the tools of publishing and production become available to almost everyone. Building an audience by understanding what people actually want, including why a podcast’s written summaries can become its most valuable output. The difference between attracting attention and earning trust, and why useful, educational storytelling offers particular opportunities for B2B businesses. Chapter IP’s ambitions for managing and licensing creative work, giving creators more control over its use, and enabling new ways to share ownership and income. Why Sean believes that ‘value flows to scarcity’, and what that means for human judgement, lived experience, original questions and creativity as AI becomes more capable. Treating a company’s knowledge as a valuable asset and choosing specific business applications for AI. Sean’s forthcoming appearance at Futura, alongside his interests outside work and his reading recommendation.

For me, this conversation brings us back to the macro-to-micro perspective: how developments in technology in the wider world translate into everyday work, decisions and capabilities for individual businesses. The opportunity to publish is one thing; earning trust, protecting the value of your work in a world of AI, and building a sustainable business around it are very different challenges. The new tools do not remove the need for sound judgement.

Sean Branagan will be speaking at the Futura Innovation Conference in Limerick, Ireland, from 19–21 October 2026, including a session with Professor Beth Egan exploring attention, trust and effective communication. Interlinks listeners can save €50 on attendance, paying €349 instead of the usual €399. Click here and use discount code PDALY when booking. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.