---
title: "US Court First Rules AI Training on Third-Party Materials Illegal"
description: "A US appeals court has for the first time ruled that training AI on third-party editorial materials is illegal, holding Ross Intelligence accountable for copyright infringement."
date: 2026-10-03T10:56:37.000Z
lang: en
url: https://xab.info/en/posts/us-court-rules-ai-training-third-party-materials-illegal
tags: [artificial-intelligence, copyright, law, court, tech-news]
publisher: "XAB.info"
---

# US Court First Rules AI Training on Third-Party Materials Illegal

![Court hearing on artificial intelligence copyright dispute](https://xab.info/media/2026/10/03/amerikanskiy-sud-priznal-nezakonnim-obuchenie-ii-na-chugih-materialah/amerikanskiy-sud-priznal-nezakonnim-obuchenie-ii-na-chugih-materialah-1.webp)

## 🎯 Key Points

- The Third Circuit Court ruled against Ross Intelligence in an AI training dispute.
- Westlaw editorial annotations were legally recognized as copyrighted works.
- Using protected data to build a competing commercial product is not fair use.

The US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has issued a landmark ruling finding Ross Intelligence liable for copyright infringement against Thomson Reuters. The lawsuit was triggered by the use of annotations from the authoritative Westlaw legal system to train Ross's own AI-powered legal search platform. This incident establishes an important legal precedent in the fields of intellectual property protection and machine learning regulation.

### Core Conflict and Arguments of the Parties

Ross developed an innovative AI-based legal search platform designed to help lawyers find relevant excerpts from court rulings. To properly train the neural network, developers utilized Westlaw's editorial annotations, which feature concise summaries and legal highlights of court decisions. In response to the allegations, Ross argued that these materials were not eligible for copyright protection due to their close connection with the underlying judicial texts, and insisted their use was fair and transformative for educational purposes.

### Court's Legal Evaluation and Fair Use Doctrine

The judicial instance rejected the defendant's arguments, ruling that Westlaw annotations meet the required minimum threshold of originality thanks to meticulous editorial effort. The court emphasized that using protected data to build a competing commercial service within the same market segment cannot be considered fully transformative. Furthermore, judges pointed to direct economic harm to the copyright holder and the creation of barriers to the emerging market of licensing content for AI training.

### Implications for the Artificial Intelligence Industry

The issued verdict demonstrates a fundamental shift in the judicial system's approach to disputes surrounding artificial intelligence and copyright law. Technology developers can no longer rely on the argument that utilizing proprietary data at intermediate stages of AI training automatically exempts them from liability. The outcome clearly shows that algorithm creators must strictly consider the origin and status of the information arrays they employ.

## 🔍 Fact-Check Verification

- [Американский суд впервые признал незаконным обучение ИИ на чужих материалах window-new](https://3dnews.ru/1149402/amerikanskiy-sud-vpervie-priznal-nezakonnim-obuchenie-ii-na-chugih-materialah) - Первичный подробный текст новости об исходе дела Ross Intelligence против Thomson Reuters.
- [Апелляционный суд подтвердил победу Thomson Reuters в деле об авторском праве на обучение ИИ против ROSS](https://www.cryptopolitan.com/ru/appeals-court-upholds-thomson-reuters-ai-training-copyright-win-over-ross/) - Подтверждение решения апелляционного суда в пользу Thomson Reuters.
- [Федерален съд в САЩ реши: Обучението на AI с чужд редакционен текст нарушава авторското право](https://www.kaldata.com/it-%d0%bd%d0%be%d0%b2%d0%b8%d0%bd%d0%b8/%d1%84%d0%b5%d0%b4%d0%b5%d1%80%d0%b0%d0%bb%d0%b5%d0%bd-%d1%81%d1%8a%d0%b4-%d0%b2-%d1%81%d0%b0%d1%89-%d1%80%d0%b5%d1%88%d0%b8-%d0%be%d0%b1%d1%83%d1%87%d0%b5%d0%bd%d0%b8%d0%b5%d1%82%d0%be-%d0%bd%d0%b0-710393.html) - Подтверждено по источнику kaldata.com
- [Суд обязал Anthropic выплатить авторам книг 1,5 млрд долларов за обучение ИИ](https://www.bfm.ru/news/612797) - Подтверждено по источнику bfm.ru

## ❓ FAQ

### Q: Which company was found liable for copyright infringement?
**A:** Ross Intelligence was found liable for using third-party materials to train its AI.

### Q: What specific materials triggered the legal dispute?
**A:** The dispute was triggered by editorial annotations and summaries from the Westlaw legal system.