First US appellate finding on fair use for AI training favors copyright holders
By Emma Whitford ( September 29, 2026, 20:24 GMT | Insight) -- In a win for Thomson Reuters in the age of artificial intelligence, a panel on the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit affirmed a lower court’s finding that ROSS Intelligence’s copying of Thomson Reuters’ Westlaw headnotes to build a legal research tool was not fair use under Section 107 of the Copyright Act. Tuesday’s judgment marks the first US appellate court ruling on fair use for AI training, albeit outside the context of generative AI.In a win for Thomson Reuters in the age of artificial intelligence, a panel on the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit affirmed a lower court’s finding that ROSS Intelligence’s copying of Thomson Reuters’ Westlaw headnotes to build a legal research tool was not fair use under Section 107 of the Copyright Act....
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