Appeals Court Rejects AI Fair Use Claim in Reuters Case

The 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a ruling in favor of Thomson Reuters Corporation in a copyright dispute against Ross Intelligence, Inc. The court rejected the argument that using copyrighted headnotes from the Westlaw platform to train an AI-powered legal search engine constituted fair use.

This decision marks the first time a U.S. appeals court has ruled on a copyright dispute specifically regarding AI training. The case began with a 2020 lawsuit alleging that Ross Intelligence copied thousands of legal summaries to develop a competing tool. Ross Intelligence shut down its platform in 2021, citing the high costs of the ongoing litigation.

While the appeals court's specific reasoning remains sealed, a Delaware federal judge previously determined the use of the material was not transformative because the intent was to create a competing product.