Public Knowledge joined a coalition led by Electronic Frontier Foundation in filing an amicus brief in support of Thomas Reuters v. Ross Intelligence, Inc. in support of the defendant-appellant.
Thomson Reuters alleged that Ross infringed its copyrights by using editorial headnotes from its legal research service Westlaw to develop an AI-based legal search tool. The United States District Court for the District of Delaware agreed, holding that the headnotes were copyrightable and that Ross’s use was not protected by fair use.
The comments argue that judicial opinions and their distilled holdings are uncopyrightable under the “government edicts” doctrine and, at most, Westlaw’s headnotes enjoy only “thin” protection because they simply restate factual holdings.