Landmark AI Copyright Ruling: Thomson Reuters Wins Case Against Ross Intelligence
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What the US' first major AI copyright ruling might mean for IP law | TechCrunch
Copyright claims against AI companies just got a potential boost. A U.S. federal judge last week handed down a summary judgment in a case brought by tech conglomerate Thomson Reuters against legal tech firm Ross Intelligence. The judge found that Ross' use of Reuters' content to train its AI legal
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Thomson Reuters Wins First Major AI Copyright Case in the US
The Thomson Reuters decision has big implications for the battle between generative AI companies and rightsholders. Thomson Reuters has won the first major AI copyright case in the United States. In 2020, the media and technology conglomerate filed an unprecedented AI copyright lawsuit against
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Thomson Reuters lands copyright win against AI company. What's next?
The first landmark win in an AI copyright case is here. A Delaware court has ruled that a tech startup used copyright-protected material to build a competing AI-based legal product, which is against the law, handing over a remarkable win to Thomson Reuters. This is the first major victory for a
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A Legal Win for Content Creators Could Change How AI Models Get Built
Training a typical AI model can require so much data that companies that make AIs have to scramble to find source material, sometimes wading into legal gray areas or outright grabbing content that's someone else's intellectual property. This habit has resulted in a number of high-profile lawsuits
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Federal judge delivers first major AI copyright ruling against startup
Why it matters: A federal judge in Delaware has delivered a landmark ruling in the first major AI copyright case in the United States, siding with Thomson Reuters in its lawsuit against legal AI startup Ross Intelligence. The decision, issued this week by US Circuit Judge Stephanos Bibas, marks a
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Thomson Reuters Wins Copyright Case Against AI Startup Ross
Disclaimer: This content generated by AI & may have errors or hallucinations. Edit before use. Read our Terms of use "The law is no longer a brooding omnipresence in the sky; it now dwells in legal research platforms," remarked a court judgement from the US District Court of Delaware. The court
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Thomson Reuters victorious in revised AI copyright case
The win is likely to impact the many other AI battles currently raging on between GenAI companies and copyright holders. Canadian technology company Thomson Reuters, has won a favourable summary judgement against AI start-up Ross Intelligence, in a copyright infringement lawsuit. In 2020 the
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Thomson Reuters wins AI copyright ruling over training data
Thomson Reuters has won a partial summary judgment in a copyright case against shuttered AI firm Ross Intelligence, a decision that disallows fair use as a defense for training models on proprietary data without permission. "We are pleased that the court granted summary judgment in our favor and
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Thomson Reuters Secures Major Win in AI Copyright Battle
Thomson Reuters scored a major victory in its AI copyright lawsuit against Ross Intelligence, a now-defunct legal startup. The lawsuit, filed in 2020, accused Ross Intelligence of using copyrighted content from Thomson Reuters' Westlaw platform to create an AI-powered competitor. On Tuesday, US
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Media company Thomson Reuters wins AI copyright case
A judge ruled in favour of Thomson Reuters, saying that a law firm's use of their legal content to train an artificial intelligence model went against US copyright laws. Thomson Reuters has won an early battle in court about whether artificial intelligence (AI) programs can train on copyrighted
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Some Good News for Hollywood Creators Suing AI Companies
Paramount to Turn Over Records on Skydance Deal Amid Standoff With FCC Copyright law bars a former competitor of Thomson Reuters from using the company's content to create an artificial intelligence-based legal platform, a court has ruled in a decision that could lay the foundation for similar
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Thomson Reuters scores early win in AI copyright battles in the US
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Thomson Reuters has won an early battle in court over the question of fair use in artificial intelligence-related copyright cases. The media and technology company filed a lawsuit against Ross Intelligence -- a now-defunct legal research firm -- in 2020, arguing they had used
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Thomson Reuters scores early win in AI copyright battles in the U.S.
Judge Stephanos Bibas of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a decision Tuesday that affirmed Ross Intelligence was not permitted under U.S. copyright law to use the company's content in order to build a competing platform. Thomson Reuters and Ross Intelligence did not immediately respond
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Thomson Reuters Scores Early Win in AI Copyright Battles in the US
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Thomson Reuters has won an early battle in court over the question of fair use in artificial intelligence-related copyright cases. The media and technology company filed a lawsuit against Ross Intelligence -- a now-defunct legal research firm -- in 2020, arguing they had used
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Thomson Reuters wins AI copyright 'fair use' ruling against one-time competitor
(Reuters) - A federal judge in Delaware on Tuesday said that a former competitor of Thomson Reuters was not permitted by U.S. copyright law to copy the information and technology company's content to build a competing artificial intelligence-based legal platform. U.S. Circuit Judge Stephanos
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Thomson Reuters wins an early court battle over AI, copyright, and fair use
AI companies have all kinds of arguments against paying for copyrighted content In building a legal research search engine, Ross turned the annotations and headnotes "into numerical data about the relationships among legal words to feed into its AI," wrote Bibas. The ruling describes how, after
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Judge Sides With Thomson Reuters in AI Copyright Dispute - Decrypt
On Tuesday, a federal judge ruled in favor of Reuters' parent company, Thomson Reuters, in their lawsuit against legal AI developer Ross Intelligence. U.S. Circuit Judge Stephanos Bibas said he was revising his 2023 summary judgment opinion on the case, court documents show. The ruling stems from
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A U.S. federal judge has ruled in favor of Thomson Reuters in a copyright infringement case against AI startup Ross Intelligence, potentially setting a precedent for future AI-related copyright disputes.
Landmark Ruling in AI Copyright Case
In a groundbreaking decision, U.S. Circuit Judge Stephanos Bibas has ruled in favor of Thomson Reuters in a copyright infringement case against AI startup Ross Intelligence. This marks the first major AI copyright ruling in the United States, potentially setting a significant precedent for ongoing and future disputes in the AI industry
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.Case Background and Allegations
Thomson Reuters filed the lawsuit in 2020, accusing Ross Intelligence of reproducing materials from its Westlaw legal research database to train an AI-powered legal research platform
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. The case centered on Ross's use of Westlaw's headnotes - summaries of legal decisions - which Thomson Reuters argued were protected by copyright1
.Judge's Ruling and Reasoning
Judge Bibas rejected Ross Intelligence's fair use defense, a key argument often used by AI companies in copyright disputes. The ruling focused on two critical aspects of fair use doctrine
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Purpose of use: The judge determined that Ross's use of Westlaw headnotes was not transformative, as it was intended to develop a competing legal research tool
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Market impact: Bibas emphasized that Ross's actions could harm the market for Thomson Reuters' original work
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The judge stated, "None of Ross's possible defenses holds water. I reject them all," in his summary judgment
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.Implications for the AI Industry
This ruling could have far-reaching consequences for the AI sector, particularly for companies developing generative AI systems. While Judge Bibas distinguished between non-generative AI (like Ross's system) and generative AI, experts suggest the decision could complicate fair use arguments for major tech companies facing similar lawsuits
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.James Grimmelmann, a Cornell University professor of digital and internet law, commented, "If this decision is followed elsewhere, it's really bad for the generative AI companies"
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. The ruling may challenge the common practice of AI companies using vast amounts of data from public sources for training without compensation or credit to the original creators1
.Related Stories
Ongoing Legal Battles and Industry Response
The AI industry is currently facing numerous copyright-related lawsuits. Notable cases include:
- The New York Times vs. OpenAI and Microsoft
- Getty Images vs. Stability AI
- Universal Music Group vs. Anthropic
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In response to legal pressures, some AI companies have begun striking licensing deals with content providers. OpenAI, for instance, has partnered with Axios, Hearst, and CondeNast, while Perplexity has inked agreements with Fortune and Times
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.Future Outlook
The Thomson Reuters vs. Ross Intelligence case may be just the beginning of a new era in AI copyright law. As the industry grapples with these legal challenges, several key questions remain:
- How will this ruling affect ongoing and future copyright cases against AI companies?
- Will more content creators pursue legal action against AI firms?
- How might AI companies adapt their data collection and training practices in light of this decision?
As the AI landscape continues to evolve, the legal framework surrounding copyright and fair use in AI development is likely to face further scrutiny and refinement
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