Law and legal tech, in three minutesGet the 7 a.m. briefDaily Brief PodcastMenu
S.D.N.Y.Litigation

Seattle Times and Newsday sue OpenAI and Microsoft over AI copying and trademark dilution

By LexCircuit Desk · · AI-drafted, human-reviewed

The Seattle Times Company and Newsday LLC sued OpenAI entities and Microsoft in Manhattan federal court on September 4, alleging unauthorized copying of their journalism to train and operate AI products. The complaint asserted direct and vicarious copyright infringement, removal of copyright-management information, distribution of works stripped of that information, and federal and state trademark dilution. The publishers sought damages, an injunction and destruction of models and datasets incorporating their works.

Filing (U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York) → · Reuters, GeekWire

Key points

  • The complaint alleged ChatGPT reproduced 88 consecutive words from Seattle Times Boeing coverage after receiving only the article headline and URL.U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New YorkGeekWire
  • OpenAI told Reuters its training used publicly available data and relied on fair use, without addressing this lawsuit specifically.Reuters
  • Microsoft said it was surprised by the lawsuit and willing to discuss solutions with the publishers.ReutersGeekWire
  • GeekWire reported both publishers participated in a $10 million Lenfest Institute AI fellowship funded by Microsoft and OpenAI in 2024.GeekWire
  • The publishers demanded a jury trial in case 1:26-cv-07644; the complaint named nine OpenAI entities and Microsoft as defendants.U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York

Sources3 articles across 3 outlets

Related

Filed under

LitigationU.S.N.Y.Wash.S.D.N.Y.Intellectual propertyLitigationTechnologyFor practitionersFor governanceFor vendors