Legal AI Caught Copying: US Federal Judge Rules in Favor of Thomson Reuters

According to a February 11 court document, the case centered on allegations that Ross used content from Thomson Reuters’ Westlaw platform without permission to train its AI.

Judge Stephanos Bibas initially declined to rule on whether Ross’ actions fell under fair use in a 2023 decision. However, after reviewing new information, he changed his stance.

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The issue began when Ross was denied a license to use Westlaw’s materials. Instead, the company obtained legal research data from LegalEase Solutions, a service provider that creates legal documents and research for law firms.

LegalEase supplied Ross with about 25,000 “Bulk Memos” containing legal questions and answers. According to Judge Bibas, these memos were created using Westlaw’s headnotes—summaries of legal rulings found in court opinions.

He also noted that while LegalEase advised its users not to copy and paste headnotes directly, how the memos were structured showed clear similarities to Westlaw’s content.

The court determined that Ross had violated 2,243 headnotes. The only remaining issue was whether any headnotes had lost copyright protection due to age. Ross’ defenses—including claims of innocent infringement, copyright misuse, and other legal arguments—were rejected.

Judge Bibas summed up his decision by acknowledging his own change in perspective:

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.

Meanwhile, a group of authors recently sued Mark Zuckerberg's multinational technology company, Meta. What happened? Read the full story.