Judge Sides With Thomson Reuters in AI Copyright Dispute

On Tuesday, a federal judge made a significant ruling in favor of Thomson Reuters, the parent company of the Westlaw legal research platform, in its ongoing legal battle against the legal AI developer Ross Intelligence.

U.S. Circuit Judge Stephanos Bibas announced that he was modifying his previous summary judgment opinion from 2023 regarding the case. This decision originates from a lawsuit filed by Thomson Reuters in May 2020. The lawsuit accused Ross Intelligence, which operates out of San Francisco, of illegally copying content from the Westlaw platform to train its artificial intelligence tools. The data was reportedly acquired from LegalEase Solutions, a Michigan-based provider of outsourced legal support.

Since the arrival of AI technologies like ChatGPT in 2022, there has been a growing concern in various fields. Many media organizations, artists, and authors have voiced apprehensions about their content being used without consent to train AI models. High-profile figures, including Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin, and well-known writers like John Grisham and Michael Connelly, have taken legal action against AI developers for allegedly utilizing their creative works without permission or compensation. In a notable case from December 2023, the New York Times filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, asserting that its articles were improperly used to train ChatGPT.

Judge Bibas stated, "In my 2023 opinion, I denied summary judgment on fair use. But with new information and understanding, I vacate those sections of that order and its accompanying opinion addressing fair use. Fair use is an affirmative defense, so Ross bears the burden of proof." This underlines the legal principle that the party making a fair use claim must demonstrate that the use qualifies under the law.

Judge Bibas detailed that after Westlaw denied Ross a license to access its content, the company turned to LegalEase for training data. LegalEase supplied Ross with approximately 25,000 'Bulk Memos,' which consist of bundled legal inquiries and responses designed to train AI. Judge Bibas remarked, "In other words, Ross built its competing product using Bulk Memos, which in turn were built from Westlaw headnotes. When Thomson Reuters discovered this, they took legal action against Ross for copyright infringement."

According to the judge, LegalEase provided a set of instructions on how to formulate questions and answers utilizing Westlaw headnotes, while advising users against directly copying these headnotes.

Judge Bibas noted the importance of this evidence, stating, "The parties agree that LegalEase had access to Westlaw and used it to create the Bulk Memos. Of course, access alone is not proof. However, when a Bulk Memo question resembles a headnote more than the original judicial opinion, it strongly suggests actual copying." Ultimately, the judge determined that Ross Intelligence did infringe on the copyrights of 2,243 headnotes, leaving only a factual question about the status of some of those copyrights.

Additionally, Judge Bibas ruled against several defenses that Ross Intelligence had attempted to use, including claims of innocent infringement, copyright misuse, merger, and scenes à faire. He conveyed his insight with the quote, “Smart man knows when he is right; a wise man knows when he is wrong. Wisdom does not always find me, so I try to embrace it when it does––even if it comes late, as it did here.” This emphasizes the complexity and evolving nature of copyright law in relation to new technologies.

court, AI, copyright