Unsealed opinion shows why Thomson Reuters won landmark AI fair-use ruling
TRI•A U.S. appeals court ruled that Ross Intelligence did not make fair use of Thomson Reuters’ Westlaw headnotes to build a competing legal search engine, rejecting Ross’ copyright defenses.
1. Appeals court ruling
The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Ross’ use of Westlaw headnotes was not transformative and affirmed a Delaware district court ruling rejecting Ross’ fair-use defense and its argument that the headnotes were not copyrightable. The court said the materials had a creative spark and Ross used them for a highly similar purpose.
2. Case details
Thomson Reuters’ 2020 lawsuit accused Ross of copying thousands of headnotes to train its competing AI-based legal search engine. Ross shut down its platform in 2021, citing the costs of the litigation. The appeals court distinguished the case from other AI training cases, saying Ross’ search engine did not use generative AI.
