Judge Rules Against AI Startup in Copyright Case Over Reuters’s Legal Database

The Thomson Reuters logo on a building in New York City in a file photo. Carlo Allegri/Reuters

A federal judge ruled in favor of Thomson Reuters on key copyright infringement claims in its lawsuit against ROSS Intelligence, an AI-powered legal research platform, dealing a blow to the startup accused of unlawfully using content from Westlaw, Reuters’s own legal research database.

U.S. Circuit Judge Stephanos Bibas issued an opinion on Feb. 11, reversing portions of a prior summary judgment decision he made in 2023 largely rejecting Thomson Reuters’s requests for summary judgment against the AI company.

“A smart man knows when he is right; a wise man knows when he is wrong,” Bibas wrote of his reversal. “Wisdom does not always find me, so I try to embrace it when it does––even if it comes late, as it did here.”

The ruling granted Thomson Reuters partial summary judgment on direct copyright infringement and fair use while rejecting ROSS Intelligence’s motions on the same issues.

The case centers on allegations that ROSS, which sought to develop an artificial intelligence-powered legal research tool, used Westlaw headnotes without authorization to train its system.

Thomson Reuters initially denied ROSS’s request for a license to use the tool. The startup then contracted with LegalEase Solutions to obtain legal research materials, which the plaintiffs argue were derived from Westlaw content.

Bibas rejected ROSS’s fair-use defense, determining that two key factors—the purpose of ROSS’s use of Westlaw headnotes and the potential market harm—favored Thomson Reuters. He ruled that ROSS’s use was not transformative and instead facilitated the creation of a competing legal research tool.

The ruling found that ROSS directly infringed 2,243 Westlaw headnotes. The only remaining factual issue for trial is whether some of these works fall outside the protected copyright period.

Bibas also dismissed ROSS’s defenses, including arguments of innocent infringement, copyright misuse, and the merger doctrine, which posits that certain legal concepts lack copyright protection.

Additionally, the judge left the question of whether more than 5,000 additional headnotes were infringed to be determined by a jury at the upcoming trial. The case is one of the first copyright disputes involving AI development.

Thomson Reuters initially filed suit in May 2020, alleging direct, contributory, and vicarious copyright infringement, as well as tortious interference with contractual relations. The complaint asserted that ROSS illicitly obtained Westlaw content after being denied a license, then used it to train an AI-powered search tool that directly competed with Westlaw.

“We are pleased that the court granted summary judgment in our favor and concluded that Westlaw’s editorial content created and maintained by our attorney editors is protected by copyright and cannot be used without our consent,” Thompson Reuters said in a statement to Bloomberg Law.

Thompson Reuters and ROSS did not respond to The Epoch Times seeking comment on the judgment prior to publication.

The case now moves toward trial, where the remaining issues, including damages and any unresolved factual disputes, will be addressed.

The ruling marks a significant development in legal research copyright law, with potential implications for AI-based tools in the industry.