Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

EWHC declines summary judgment in Getty v Stability AI; territorial issues and software-as-'article' secondary infringement to be tried; permission to add image-to-image claims; confidentiality maintained

Published on: 13 December 2023

Published by a LexisNexis TMT expert

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Article summary

Getty Images (US) Inc and other companies v Stability Al Ltd [2023] EWHC 3090 (Ch) What are the practical implications of this case?

General litigators will find here a clear illustration of the hurdles in obtaining summary judgment or a strike out where a claim rests only on inference. Getty pleaded primary copyright and database infringement on the footing that relevant UK acts could be inferred because Stability’s development team includes a substantial cohort of people living and working in the UK. Both parties put forward material for the hearing. Getty identified social media posts and YouTube videos consistent with the alleged conduct in the UK; Stability served seven witness statements, but these did not comprehensively set out the role of each UK-based team member or the computer systems they could use. The judge concluded there was:

material arguably undermining Stability’s stance that Stable Diffusion was trained and developed outside the UK;
evidence creating unresolved questions and inconsistencies on that issue; and
a proper basis to believe disclosure might augment or change the evidence bearing on the point...

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