Getty Images v Stability AI (UK High Court judgment)
UK High Court rejected Getty's secondary copyright claim, holding that Stable Diffusion's weights are not an 'infringing copy', and made only narrow trade-mark findings for watermarks.
First UK AI-training case to reach judgment. Getty dropped its training and output claims before the end of trial (no UK nexus); the court held the model does not store copies of images and found limited trade-mark infringement for early versions that generated Getty-like watermarks.
- Date
- Tuesday, 4 November 2025
- Lab
- Getty Images / Stability AI
- Kind
- product
- Access
- open weights
Judgment published 2025-11-04 on judiciary.uk ([2025] EWHC 2863 (Ch), Joanna Smith J). The outcome description comes from law-firm summaries returned by search; the judgment text itself was not read. Getty's separate US case (filed 2023) was not checked.
Sources
- www.judiciary.uk/judgments/getty-images-v-stability-ai/
- www.squirepattonboggs.com/en/insights/publications/2025/11/getty-images-us-inc-and-others-
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