Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Getty v Stability AI: England and Wales High Court finds limited, historic trade mark infringement; rejects claim Stable Diffusion is an infringing copy; model weights deemed importable intangible articles

Published on: 05 November 2025

Published by a Law360 reporter

Legal News

Article summary

In a 205-page ruling, High Court judge Joanna Smith determined that certain 'synthetic' pictures carried watermarks matching those of iStock, the Getty Images subsidiary. Yet she identified just a single case in which earlier releases of the Stable Diffusion system reproduced an infringing Getty watermark. She also concluded there was no proof of any UK user generating Getty Images or iStock watermarks, Judge Smith ruled. She added that it is 'impossible' to quantify how many such watermarks have been produced 'in real life' that might count as infringing. She emphasised the practical uncertainty surrounding any real-world tally of potentially infringing watermarks. 'Although Getty Images succeed (in part) on their trade mark claim, my conclusions are historic and very narrow in scope,' she noted. The AI firm further avoided Getty’s attempt to pin copyright infringement liability on it. The High Court rejected the contention that the Stable Diffusion model itself constituted an 'infringing copy' of Getty’s intellectual property. The ruling closes the chapter on the infringement claim Getty filed in May 2023...

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