High Court of Justice (England & Wales) v. Stability AI Ltd (Getty Images v Stability AI)
In the first major UK ruling on copyright and generative AI, the High Court rejected Getty's central copyright claim — holding Stable Diffusion's model weights are not an infringing 'copy' of training images — but found limited trademark infringement where generated images reproduced Getty/iStock watermarks.
Key takeaway — how to prevent this
AI that denies insurance claims or benefits must preserve meaningful human review of medical necessity; automated mass denials draw bad-faith, breach-of-contract and class-action liability.
Case brief
Read from the judgment on 2026-09-18. Every holding carries a short verbatim quote from that text.
- Decided by
- High Court of Justice Business and Property Courts of England and Wales Intellectual Property List (ChD)
- Parties
- GETTY IMAGES (US) INC, GETTY IMAGES INTERNATIONAL U.C., GETTY IMAGES (UK) LIMITED, GETTY IMAGES DEVCO UK LIMITED, ISTOCKPHOTO LP, and THOMAS M. BARWICK, INC v. STABILITY AI LIMITED
- Decision date
- November 4, 2025
- Appeal
- Appeal status not stated
Key holdings
The High Court issued a judgment under neutral citation [2025] EWHC 2863 (Ch) for case number IL-2023-000007.
“Neutral Citation Number: [2025] EWHC 2863 (Ch)”
The intellectual property action was filed against defendant Stability AI Limited.
“STABILITY AI LIMITED”
In plain English
This public record page from the Courts and Tribunals Judiciary website presents the judgment details for the lawsuit between Getty Images and Stability AI Limited in the High Court of Justice Business and Property Courts of England and Wales Intellectual Property List. The proceeding involves 6 claimants, including Getty Images US Inc, Getty Images International UC, Getty Images UK Limited, Getty Images Devco UK Limited, iStockphoto LP, and Thomas M Barwick Inc, against the defendant Stability AI Limited. The matter was presided over by Mrs Justice Joanna Smith DBE. The court published the judgment on November 4 2025 under case number IL-2023-000007 and neutral citation 2025 EWHC 2863 Ch. While the complete reasoning is provided through attached PDF documents, including the main file of 2.57 megabytes, Appendix A of 131.44 kilobytes, and Appendix B of 329.82 kilobytes, this record confirms that a ruling was issued in this intellectual property dispute. This official listing marks a significant judicial development in ongoing legal scrutiny surrounding artificial intelligence and image licensing in the United Kingdom.
Inclusion does not imply wrongdoing or liability. A filed lawsuit is an allegation, not a court finding. Status reflects the latest information we have — always check the official source for current status.