Federal Appeals Court Upholds Thomson Reuters AI Copyright Win Against Ross Intelligence
On Tuesday, a federal appeals court in the U.S. sided with Thomson Reuters, upholding its victory regarding copyright infringement against the now-defunct legal AI company Ross Intelligence. The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia dismissed Ross's fair use argument for utilizing publisher content to train its commercial AI product without authorization. Judge Tamika Montgomery-Reeves emphasized that Thomson Reuters's works "possess a creative spark" and highlighted that ROSS's intention was to compete directly. This case does not pertain to generative AI, as Ross's search engine focused on retrieving existing judicial texts. Thomson Reuters initiated the lawsuit in 2020, claiming that Ross had copied thousands of headnotes from Westlaw. Legal analysts considered the appeal a crucial precedent in AI copyright matters.
Key facts
- A U.S. federal appeals court upheld Thomson Reuters's copyright win against Ross Intelligence on Tuesday
- The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia issued the ruling, the first federal appeals case to reject fair use for training commercial AI on publisher content
- Judge Tamika Montgomery-Reeves wrote the decision, stating Thomson Reuters's materials possess a creative spark
- The case does not involve an LLM or generative AI, as Ross's search engine retrieved existing judicial opinion passages
- Thomson Reuters filed suit in 2020, alleging Ross copied thousands of Westlaw headnotes to train its legal search engine
- Judge Stephanos Bibas ruled for Thomson Reuters in February 2025, finding Ross intended a market substitute for Westlaw
- In Bartz v. Anthropic, a June 2025 ruling found book training fair use but piracy led to a $1.5 billion settlement
- Montgomery-Reeves distinguished Bartz, noting ROSS cannot generate original expression
Entities
Artists
- Tamika Montgomery-Reeves
- Stephanos Bibas
- Andrew Deck
Institutions
- Thomson Reuters
- Ross Intelligence
- 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
- Westlaw
- OpenAI
- Anthropic
- Authors Guild
- Nieman Journalism Lab
- Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard
- Harvard University
Locations
- Philadelphia
- United States