Getty Images abandoned its core copyright infringement claims against artificial intelligence company Stability AI on Wednesday as closing arguments began in a closely watched legal battle at London's High Court, marking a strategic retreat in one of the first major copyright trials of the generative AI era.
The stock photo giant's decision to drop its primary allegations removes the heart of its lawsuit against Stability AI, the company behind the popular AI image generator Stable Diffusion, though the case continues on narrower grounds.
Getty's lawyers told the court they abandoned the copyright claims due to "weak evidence and a lack of knowledgeable witnesses" from Stability AI, framing the move as a strategic decision to focus on what they consider stronger allegations1. Legal experts said the decision likely stemmed from Getty's failure to establish sufficient connection between the alleged infringement and UK jurisdiction1.
"The training claim has likely been dropped due to Getty failing to establish a sufficient connection between the infringing acts and the UK jurisdiction for copyright law to bite," Ben Maling, a partner at law firm EIP, told TechCrunch1.
The withdrawal came after Getty struggled to prove its case partly because Stability AI, though London-based, conducted its AI training on Amazon computers in the United States2.
Getty continues to pursue claims for trademark infringement, alleging that Stability AI's model was trained on images containing Getty's watermarks, which sometimes appear in the AI generator's output12. The company also maintains a secondary copyright infringement claim, arguing that using AI models in the UK could constitute importing infringing articles even if training occurred elsewhere3.
"Secondary infringement is the one with widest relevance to genAI companies training outside of the UK," Maling explained3.
A Stability AI spokesperson said the company was "pleased to see Getty's decision to drop multiple claims after the conclusion of the testimony"3.
The development follows a Tuesday ruling in which a US federal judge sided with AI company Anthropic in a similar dispute over training AI systems on copyrighted books1. Getty's withdrawal represents the second setback this week for creative industries challenging AI companies' training practices2.
Getty originally sued Stability AI in January 2023, alleging the company unlawfully used 12 million copyrighted images to train Stable Diffusion without permission34. The company is seeking $1.7 billion in damages in a parallel US lawsuit1.
Closing arguments are expected to continue through the week, with a written decision from the judge expected later25.
