Key points
- First UK ruling on AI training and copyright: no primary infringement where training occurred outside UK territory.
- Court accepted that diffusion models do not store reproductions of training images.
- Limited trade mark infringement found where earlier Stable Diffusion versions reproduced Getty watermarks.
Summary
The UK High Court delivered the first UK judgment on whether training an AI image model on copyright-protected images constitutes infringement in November 2025. The court found no primary copyright infringement because the training process occurred outside UK territory, and accepted that diffusion models do not store reproductions of their training images. Limited trade mark infringement was found in relation to earlier Stable Diffusion versions that reproduced Getty watermarks in outputs. The judgment establishes UK territorial reasoning as the operative precedent for training-data cases.
Related items
- Andersen v. Stability AI Ltd: Order Allowing Artists' Core Claims (12 August 2024)
- Disney Enterprises Inc et al. v. Midjourney Inc: Complaint
Source
Source: Courts and Tribunals Judiciary (England and Wales) ↗ (Court Ruling)
Cite this item
Courts and Tribunals Judiciary (England and Wales) (2025). ‘Getty Images (US) Inc v. Stability AI Ltd: UK High Court Judgment’, Courts and Tribunals Judiciary (England and Wales). Available at: https://www.judiciary.uk/judgments/getty-images-v-stability-ai/
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