The High Court in London ruled on January 14 2025 that Getty Images succeeded in part on its trademark infringement claim against Stability AI, but the court found the findings to be historic and extremely limited in scope.
The court rejected Stability AI’s argument that users should bear responsibility for any infringing content, holding the model provider accountable for the use of protected material. However, Getty’s primary copyright infringement claim was dismissed because the court determined that Stable Diffusion does not store or reproduce any copyrighted works, and the claim was dropped mid‑trial due to insufficient evidence that the model was trained in the United Kingdom.
Getty Images will apply the factual findings from the UK ruling to its ongoing U.S. copyright lawsuit against Stability AI. The company also urged governments to adopt stronger transparency rules to prevent costly legal battles for content creators.
The ruling is a mixed outcome: while Getty secured a narrow trademark win, it lost its core copyright claim, leaving many questions about the legality of AI training on copyrighted material unanswered. The case is part of a broader series of legal disputes involving creators and AI firms, underscoring the uncertainty surrounding intellectual‑property rights in the generative‑AI industry.
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