Well, it looks like no federal judge wants to be next to decide whether AI training constitutes a fair use. Or, rather, the parties are seeking extensions to their case deadlines, resulting in delays to the summary judgment motions.
Today, Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV, presiding over UMG v. Suno in the District of Massachusetts, granted the parties’ request to extend the schedule as follows:
- 1/9/26: Fact Discovery (except for RFAs) and Depositions completed by.
- 1/23/26: RFA’s completed.
- 1/30/26: Remaining Discovery disputes (except for RFAs and experts) by.
- 2/20/26: Trial Expert Disclosures.
- 3/20/26: Rebuttal Experts.
- 5/15/26: Trial Expert Depositions.
- 6/19/26: Dispositive Motions.
Now, it looks like the next conceivable decision on fair use won’t come until summer 2026. And the case against Suno reportedly had serious settlement negotiations but, so far, without success.
This means, for the time being, the three fair use decisions of Judges Bibas, Alsup, and Chhabria, respectively, will remain the only precedents on AI training for the better part of 2026.
It looks like Judge Lee in the Google Gen AI case now moves to the top of the order for the next fair use decision. She has a second possible decision in Concord Music, although Concord Music has a pending motion to extend fact discovery. So, it looks like Judge Saylor and Judge Lee are the two judges with the greatest chance of deciding fair use in the summer 2026.
Here are the current schedules related to summary judgment motions:
- May 6, 2026 – In re Google Gen AI Litigation last day for hearing on SJ (Judge Lee)
- June 6, 2026 – UMG Recordings v. Suno SJ motions due (Judge Saylor IV)*
- June 10, 2026 – Concord Music v. Anthropic hearing on SJ (Judge Lee)*
- July 10, 2026 – In re Mosaic LLM Litigation replies on SJ due (Judge Breyer)*
- Oct. 16, 2026 – In re ChatGPT Infringement Litigation replies on SJ due (Judge Stein)
- Nov. 4, 2026 – Andersen v. Stability AI hearing on SJ (Judge Orrick)
- Nov. 23, 2026 – Nazemian, Dubus v. NVIDIA replies due on SJ (Judge Tigar)
This means, for the time being, the three fair use decisions of Judges Bibas, Alsup, and Chhabria, respectively, will remain the only precedents on AI training for the better part of 2026. And it’s quite possible the Third Circuit will issue a decision in the appeal in Thomson Reuters v. ROSS Intelligence before some of the district courts issue their decisions.
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