UK High Court Largely Rejects Getty Images Copyright Claims Against Stability AI

Getty Images faced a significant legal defeat in its landmark lawsuit against Stability AI in the UK High Court, where most of its copyright claims were dismissed. The court ruled that while Stability AI's image generation model, Stable Diffusion, infringed Getty's trademark due to watermarks appearing in AI-generated images, the claim of secondary copyright infringement was rejected because the AI model itself does not constitute an infringing copy. Getty had dropped its primary copyright infringement claims mid-trial due to insufficient evidence about where the AI training occurred. The ruling was described as a historic but narrowly scoped victory for Getty on trademark grounds, while representing a major win for Stability AI and the broader AI industry regarding copyright liability. Getty remains optimistic about pursuing similar claims in the U.S., emphasizing the potential vulnerability of intangible AI models to copyright claims. The case highlights ongoing legal challenges surrounding AI training on copyrighted material and the limits of current intellectual property law in addressing AI-generated content.