US appeals court upholds Thomson Reuters' landmark win in AI training lawsuit
TRI•A US appeals court upheld a ruling for Thomson Reuters in its copyright dispute with Ross Intelligence over material allegedly used to train Ross' AI legal-search engine. The court rejected Ross' fair-use argument; its reasoning is sealed.
1. Appeal rejected
The 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a ruling for Thomson Reuters, rejecting Ross Intelligence's argument that its search engine made fair use of material from Thomson Reuters' Westlaw platform. It is the first ruling by a US appeals court in a copyright dispute over AI training.
2. Dispute over headnotes
Thomson Reuters' 2020 lawsuit accused Ross of copying thousands of Westlaw headnotes, which summarize points of law in court opinions, to train a competing AI-based legal search engine. A federal judge rejected Ross' fair-use defense last year, saying Ross used the headnotes to make it easier to develop a competing legal research tool; Ross shut down its platform in 2021, citing litigation costs.
