by Dennis Crouch
In a surprising decision today, Judge Stephanos Bibas ruled that ROSS Intelligence's use of Westlaw content to train its legal AI system constituted copyright infringement. Thomson Reuters Enter. Ctr. GmbH v. Ross Intel. Inc., No. 1:20-cv-613-SB (D. Del. Feb. 11, 2025). I have been following a number of AI intellectual property challenges. Most of these have favored the makers and users of AI over the owners of the IP (typically copyright holders).
In 2023, Judge Bibas largely denied Thomson Reuters' motions for summary judgment on copyright infringement and fair use. Thomson Reuters Enter. Ctr. GmbH v. Ross Intel. Inc., 694 F. Supp. 3d 467 (D. Del. 2023). However, while preparing for the scheduled August 2024 trial, the judge reconsidered his earlier ruling. The new opinion granted Thomson Reuters summary judgment on direct copyright infringement for 2,243 specific headnotes (detailed in a sealed appendix), including a finding of no fair use. It looks like the only remaining factual issue for trial regarding these headnotes is whether some of their copyrights have expired. There are also another set of headnotes that the judge concluded were not original enough to be clearly copyrightable -- those would go to a jury for consideration. [Read the Decision: 1739288038966]