Getty Images, Inc. v. Stability AI, Inc.
Overview
Filed February 3, 2023 in the Federal District Court for the District of Delaware.
Summary: This is the second major copyright infringement suit filed against generative-AI company Stability AI (creator of Stable Diffusion). Getty’s complaint is for copyright infringement, trademark infringement, unfair competition, trademark dilution, DMCA violations, and related state law claims. Getty alleges that Stability AI is building a competing business using Getty’s images without permission. It listed 7,216 of its copyrighted images in the complaint, a subset of the millions it’s alleging Stability AI is infringing. Getty also alleges that its famous watermark is on some Stability AI output images, confusing users into believing the images originated with Getty, and that Stability AI violated the DMCA by trying to remove it.
Status: The case is still in its early stages. Getty Images filed its second amended complaint on July 9, 2024, and Stability AI responded by filing its second motion to dismiss, arguing that the court had no personal jurisdiction over Stability UK, and since that party is indispensable to the case, the complaint must be dismissed. In the alternative, Stability AI seeks to transfer the case from Delaware to Northern California.
Bottom Line: Along with Andersen v. Stability AI, this is the second major IP case against Stability AI. A case like this will probably end with a private settlement agreement between the parties, so we may not get much judicial precedent from it. Either way, however, we can expect a lot more IP cases (copyright especially) against companies offering this completely new technology. In all of these cases, the fair use defense is going to be the biggest hurdle for the plaintiffs to climb for their copyright infringement claims, but in this case in particular, Getty may have a better luck pursuing its trademark infringement claims.
Docket
Selected filings from the docket, available for free, are below. The full docket can be accessed via Court Listener.
2/3/2023 - Complaint
3/29/2023 - Amended Complaint
5/2/2023 - Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss or Transfer
7/8/2024 - Second Amended Complaint
7/29/2024 - Defendants’ Renewed Motion to Dismiss
7/29/2024 - Defendants’ Renewed Motion to Transfer
8/19/2024 - Defendants’ Reply ISO Renewed Motion to Dismiss
8/19/2024 - Defendants’ Reply ISO Renewed Motion to Transfer
8/21/2024 - Plaintiff’s Opposition to Defendants’ Renewed Motion to Dismiss (redacted)
8/21/2024 - Plaintiff’s Opposition to Defendants’ Motion to Transfer (redacted)