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: In response to Getty’s amended complaint, Stability AI filed a motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction, inability to join a necessary party, and failure to state a claim, or alternatively, a motion to transfer the lawsuit to the Northern District of 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