Thomson Reuters wins copyright appeal in 3rd Circuit

The Philadelphia-based 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals said in a ruling unsealed on Wednesday that defunct legal-research company Ross Intelligence did not make fair use of Thomson Reuters’ copyrighted material to build an AI-based legal search engine, Reuters Legal reported. The ruling was unsealed on 30 September after the court issued it on 29 September.

Legal IT Insider reported that the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals had upheld a ruling for Thomson Reuters in its copyright dispute with former legal-research rival Ross Intelligence over Ross’ alleged misuse of material. LawSites reported that the court’s opinion had initially been sealed and that the case involved Thomson Reuters and the now-shuttered AI legal research company ROSS Intelligence.

Bloomberg Law reported that Westlaw’s owner had convinced the federal appeals court to uphold a first-of-its-kind ruling that Ross Intelligence’s competing AI tool did not make fair use of Thomson Reuters’ headnotes under copyright law.