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Appeals court backs Thomson Reuters in AI training copyright case
The 3rd Circuit rejected Ross Intelligence’s fair-use argument over alleged copying of Westlaw headnotes to train an AI legal search engine.
A US appeals court upheld a ruling for Thomson Reuters in its copyright dispute with Ross Intelligence, finding that Ross’s AI legal search engine did not qualify for fair use over alleged use of Westlaw content, Insurance Journal reports.
The Philadelphia-based company said its 2020 lawsuit accused Ross Intelligence of copying Westlaw headnotes, which summarize points of law in court opinions, and misusing thousands of them to train its competing AI-powered legal search tool.
The US 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Ross’s argument that the engine’s use was fair use, calling the decision a first-of-its-kind ruling amid a broader wave of high-stakes copyright cases tied to AI training.
Ross Intelligence shut down its platform in 2021, citing the costs of the litigation, while Thomson Reuters’ case adds to dozens of copyright suits filed by various creators and rights holders against technology companies for AI training use of copyrighted works.