{"id":38335,"date":"2025-09-29T15:22:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T15:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/?post_type=policy&#038;p=38335"},"modified":"2025-09-29T15:22:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T15:22:12","slug":"thomson-reuters-v-ross-intelligence-amicus-brief","status":"publish","type":"policy","link":"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/policy\/thomson-reuters-v-ross-intelligence-amicus-brief\/","title":{"rendered":"Thomson Reuters v Ross Intelligence Amicus Brief"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>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.<br><br>Thomson Reuters alleged that Ross infringed its copyrights by using editorial headnotes from its legal research service\u00a0Westlaw 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\u2019s use was not protected by fair use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The comments argue that judicial opinions and their distilled holdings are uncopyrightable under the &#8220;government edicts&#8221; doctrine and, at most, Westlaw\u2019s headnotes enjoy only \u201cthin\u201d protection because they simply restate factual holdings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div data-wp-interactive=\"core\/file\" class=\"wp-block-file\"><object data-wp-bind--hidden=\"!state.hasPdfPreview\" hidden class=\"wp-block-file__embed\" data=\"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/2025-09-26-ECF-Filer-Electronic-dckt-.pdf\" type=\"application\/pdf\" style=\"width:100%;height:600px\" aria-label=\"Embed of 2025-09-26 ECF Filer Electronic [dckt ].\"><\/object><a id=\"wp-block-file--media-76542723-bd41-421c-9b86-de50bb95ec78\" href=\"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/2025-09-26-ECF-Filer-Electronic-dckt-.pdf\">2025-09-26 ECF Filer Electronic [dckt ]<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/2025-09-26-ECF-Filer-Electronic-dckt-.pdf\" class=\"wp-block-file__button wp-element-button\" download aria-describedby=\"wp-block-file--media-76542723-bd41-421c-9b86-de50bb95ec78\">Download<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":211,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","categories":[17],"tags":[12,29],"class_list":["post-38335","policy","type-policy","status-publish","hentry","category-regulatory-and-legal","tag-copyright-reform","tag-trustworthy-ai"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.5 (Yoast SEO v26.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Thomson Reuters v Ross Intelligence Amicus Brief - Public Knowledge<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/policy\/thomson-reuters-v-ross-intelligence-amicus-brief\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Thomson Reuters v Ross Intelligence Amicus Brief\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"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\u00a0Westlaw to develop an AI-based legal search tool. The United [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/policy\/thomson-reuters-v-ross-intelligence-amicus-brief\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Public Knowledge\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-09-29T15:22:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/pk_social_logo-2.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/policy\/thomson-reuters-v-ross-intelligence-amicus-brief\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/policy\/thomson-reuters-v-ross-intelligence-amicus-brief\/\",\"name\":\"Thomson Reuters v Ross Intelligence Amicus Brief - Public Knowledge\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-09-29T15:22:09+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-09-29T15:22:12+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/policy\/thomson-reuters-v-ross-intelligence-amicus-brief\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/policy\/thomson-reuters-v-ross-intelligence-amicus-brief\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/policy\/thomson-reuters-v-ross-intelligence-amicus-brief\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Policies\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/policy\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Thomson Reuters v Ross Intelligence Amicus Brief\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/\",\"name\":\"Public Knowledge\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Public Knowledge\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/pk_social_logo-2.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/pk_social_logo-2.png\",\"width\":400,\"height\":200,\"caption\":\"Public Knowledge\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Thomson Reuters v Ross Intelligence Amicus Brief - Public Knowledge","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/policy\/thomson-reuters-v-ross-intelligence-amicus-brief\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Thomson Reuters v Ross Intelligence Amicus Brief","og_description":"Public Knowledge joined a coalition led by Electronic Frontier Foundation in filing an amicus brief in support of Thomas Reuters v. 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