ROSS AI Decision Gives Early Indication of Strengths and Weaknesses of Fair Use Defense – Mayer Brown

‘On Tuesday, a Delaware federal district court granted partial summary judgment to Thomson Reuters Enterprise Centre GmbH (“Thomson Reuters”) in its copyright litigation against ROSS Intelligence (“ROSS”). The lawsuit, which was filed by Thomson Reuters in 2020, alleges that ROSS utilized copyrighted content from Thomson Reuters’ Westlaw database in order to create its artificial intelligence (“AI”) legal research tool. This week’s decision, which revises a prior 2023 summary judgment opinion and order from the same court, grants summary judgment on certain of Thomson Reuters’ direct infringement claims, and most notably rejects ROSS’ assertion that the fair use defense applied to ROSS’ use of the copyrighted material.’

Link: https://www.mayerbrown.com/en/insights/publications/2025/02/ross-ai-decision-gives-early-indication-of-strengths-and-weaknesses-of-fair-use-defense