Thomson Reuters v. ROSS Intelligence

DOCKET NO.OP. BELOWORAL ARG.OPINIONAUTHOR
25-21532025 opinion
2023 opinion partially vacated
Judge Stephanos Bibas
June 11, 2026
Setting & Time: Maris Courtroom / 10:00am. Location: Philadelphia, PA
TBATBA

QUESTIONS PRESENTED:

  1. Is a short quote or paraphrase of a judicial holding copyrightable?
  2. Does the fair use doctrine protect ROSS’s internal use of Westlaw’s headnotes in memos that served as training data for an AI legal search engine that produced only non-infringing outputs?

ChatGPT Is Eating the World coverage

Briefing

DATEBRIEFS
09/22/2025Appellant ROSS Opening Brief
09/26/2025Brief of Heather Meeker as Amicus Curiae in Supp. of Defendant-Appellant
09/26/2025Brief of Amici Curiae Electronic Frontier Foundation, American Library Assn., Assn. of Research Libraries, Internet Archive, Public Knowledge, and Public.Resource.Org in Supp. of Defendant-Appellant and Reversal
9/29/2025Brief Amici Curiae of the Computer & Communs. Industry Assn., Chamber of Progress, and Netchoice in Supp. of Appellant ROSS Intelligence, Inc. and Reversal
9/29/2025Brief of Copyright Law Professors as Amici Curiae in Supp. of Appellant*
9/29/2025Amicus Brief on the merits on behalf of Randy Goebel and Larry Ullman
9/29/2025Brief of Amicus Curiae Next-Generation Legal Research and Technology Platforms in Supp. of Appellant
9/29/2025Brief for Amicus Curiae Authors Alliance, Inc. in Supp. of Defendant-Appellant, Ross Intelligence, Inc.
9/29/2025Brief for Amici Curiae Brian L. Frye, Jess Miers, and Mateusz Blaszczyk in Supp. of Appellant
9/29/2025Brief for Amicus Curiae Foundation for American Innovation in Supp. of Defendant-Appellant
9/29/2025Brief Amicus Curiae of Abraham Kang, Esq. and Kunal Patel in Supp. of Appellant
11/19/2025Appellees Thomson Reuters Brief
11/21/2025Brief of Amicus Curiae Phoenix Center for Advanced Legal and Economic Public Policy Studies in Supp. of Appellees
11/26/2025Brief for Amici Curiae Professors Sandra Aistars, Robert Brauneis, Megan Carpenter, Kevin Casini, Jon M. Garon, Timothy H. Hsieh, Joshua Kresh, Jake Linford, Philippa Loengard, Loren E. Mulraine, Sean A Pager, Eric Priest, Zvi Rosen, Mark F. Schultz and Bhamati Viswanathan in Supp. of Thomson Reuters and West Publishing
11/26/2025Brief of Amicus Curiae AI Coalition for Data Integrity in Supp. of Appellees
11/26/2025Brief for Amicus Jonathan Iwry in Supp. of Appellees and Affirmance
11/26/2025Brief of Amici Curiae Recording Industry Association of America and National Music Publishers Assn. in Supp. of Appellees
11/26/2025Amicus Curiae brief for Association of American Publishers in Supp. of Appellees
11/26/2025Brief of Disney Enterprises, Inc., Paramount Pictures Corp., Sony Pictures Entm’t Inc., Universal City Studios LLC and Warner Bros. Entm’t Inc. as Amici Curiae in Supp. of Appellees
11/26/2025Brief of Amicus Curiae Relx, Inc. in Supp. of Appellee
11/26/2025Brief of Amici Curiae on Behalf of American National Standards Institute and Six Standards Organizations in Supp. of Appellees
11/26/2025Brief of Amicus Curiae News/Media Alliance in Supp. of Appellees
11/26/2025Brief of Amicus Curiae Copyright Alliance in Supp. of Appellees
11/26/2025Brief for Amicus Curiae Center for Art Law in Supp. of Appellee
12/22/2025ROSS Intelligence Reply
5/11/2026Supplemental Brief for Defendant-Appellant on ASTM v. UpCodes
5/11/2026Supplemental Brief for Thomson Reuters on ASTM v. UpCodes
5/28/2026ECF FILER: SUMMARY OF ORAL ARGUMENT submitted by Attorney Miranda D. Means, Esq. for Appellees Thomson Reuters Enterprise Centre GmbH and West Publishing Corp. Case Summary: Whether a legal-research company that copied original editorial content from its competitor to build its own commercial product is not liable for copyright infringement because the copied content is not copyrightable or its copying was fair use.
5/28/2026ECF FILER: SUMMARY OF ORAL ARGUMENT submitted by Attorney Mark S. Davies, Esq. for Appellant Ross Intelligence Inc. Case Summary: Is a short quote or paraphrase of judicial holding copyrightable and does the fair use doctrine protect ROSS’s internal use of Westlaw’s headnotes in memos that served as training data for an AI legal search engine?
5/28/2026ECF FILER: Letter dated 05/28/2026, filed pursuant to Rule 28(j) from counsel for Appellant Ross Intelligence Inc. Service made by ECF. This document will be SENT TO THE MERITS PANEL, if/when applicable.

*Full disclosure: I participated in one of the amici briefs filed on behalf of Copyright Law Professors in Support of ROSS Intelligence.