The Third Circuit is stepping into the spotlight on the intersection of copyright law and AI training. On June 17, it agreed to hear the appeal in Ross v. Thomson Reuters, the first clear precedent on the subject. The district court held that Ross infringed copyright by using Westlaw’s headnotes to train its competing legal research tool. The court also rejected Ross’s fair use defense, focusing heavily on the fact that the resulting AI product competes with Westlaw.

The Third Circuit has now certified two central questions for appeal: whether the headnotes are sufficiently original to warrant copyright protection, and whether Ross’s use qualifies as fair use. The district court sided with Westlaw on both questions, but the appellate court could shift the analysis. If it finds the headnotes are not protectable, it may not consider the fair use defense. But if it does address the defense, it could provide clearer guidance on its application in the AI-training context.

The awaited outcome could provide another piece in the puzzle of whether training AI on curated legal content is a copyright violation or just good use of data in the digital age.