Getty Images loses AI copyright case

Peter Nunn and Gareth Dickson, both Partners in the Innovation department at Mishcon de Reya, were quoted in The Times’ coverage of Getty Images’ high-profile copyright and trademark infringement case against Stability AI.

The High Court ruled that Stability AI’s image generator, Stable Diffusion, was not an "infringing copy" of Getty’s images and could be distributed and used in the UK. Getty had dropped its main copyright claim during the trial, as it could not prove that the AI model was trained in the UK, but did succeed on a limited trademark infringement claim.

Peter commented: “This decision does not provide an answer to the question of whether the way in which AI tools are being trained infringes the copyright in the works used to train them. Had Stable Diffusion been trained on Getty’s images in the UK, then it seems likely that this training would have infringed Getty’s copyright. But, crucially, it was not trained in the UK — ie i.e. any unauthorised use of Getty’s Images took place elsewhere.”

Gareth commented: “Although the evidence before the court means that this is a relatively narrow judgment, it is hugely significant for the principles it establishes. Aside from the ruling that Stability AI is not ‘secondarily liable’ for its importation and offering of models trained abroad, which many copyright owners say gives overseas developers the greenlight to ignore UK copyright law, the trade mark ruling is highly significant. Many trade mark owners may take from the judgment that, with better evidence and the correct specifications in their registrations, there are viable trade mark infringement claims against providers of AI models to be brought, where outputs contain identical or similar signs.”