In the recent judgment in Getty Images v Stability AI [2025] EWHC 2863 (Ch), the High Court considered whether the generative AI model Stable Diffusion infringed copyright in works owned by/licensed to Getty Images, and further whether the model outputs infringed Getty Images’ trade marks. Getty argued that millions of its images had been used without permission to train the Stable Diffusion model, and that the model itself was therefore an infringing copy of the works.
Crucially, the court was not considering whether copyright was infringed during the training process of Stable Diffusion, as those claims were not pursued to trial by Getty due to a lack of evidence of training having been taken place in the UK. Instead, the High Court decided on the much narrower issue of whether the trained Stable Diffusion model is itself an “infringing copy” of the copyright works trained on. If the model was an infringing copy, under secondary copyright infringement law, its import into the UK would have infringed Getty’s copyright, even though the model had not been trained in the UK.
The High Court’s decision came down to the way in which Stable Diffusion was trained, and the relationship between the model and its training data. Stable Diffusion is a diffusion model, meaning its model weights are numerical parameters learned from training, not stored or compressed copies of its training data. The model does not contain any of Getty’s copyright images in any form whatsoever – and never has done – even though it may have been exposed to them during training. Getty’s secondary copyright claim failed as a result.
Although Getty lost its secondary copyright infringement claim, this was a highly fact-specific decision which related to this model of Stable Diffusion only. The High Court stressed this in its decision. Although it may be true that an “AI model which does not store or reproduce any copyright works (and has never done so) is not an “infringing copy””, this leaves the door open for an AI model that does store or reproduce copyright works (or has done so at some point) being found to be an infringing copy of its training data. Other model architectures that retain or reproduce their training data verbatim – which is more common for text models than image models like Stable Diffusion – may still be deemed infringing copies. In addition, there is scope for argument on whether a more liberal interpretation of what is an infringing copy should be adopted: in circumstances where the model has extracted the value and intellectual creation of copyright works, and in a manner that was not envisaged when the legislation was passed, why is this not reproduction of the underlying intellectual creation?
Further, as Getty dropped its training claims at trial, the UK courts are yet to decide on whether the training of AI models using copyright works in the UK infringes copyright. That question will need to be decided in a future claim involving an AI model that was trained (or at least partially trained) in the UK.
On the trade mark infringement claim, the court made a limited finding of trade mark infringement where early model versions of Stable Diffusion produced outputs with Getty-style watermarks.
If you’d like to speak to a member of the team about any of the issues raised by the judgment, please reach out to one of our AI experts.
Shireen advises on all types of intellectual property, with a particular emphasis on pragmatic and cost effective disputes and strategic advice. She also provides advice on the protection of IP, IP audits, the exploitation and disposal of IP and the management and enforcement programmes Her 30 years’ experience means that she is a trusted adviser to many leading businesses and has deep and strong experience in a number of sectors and issues.
Shireen works with clients in a wide range of sectors, including FMCG, retail, fashion, film, TV and theatre, publishing, music, video games and travel. She has a particular interest in the publishing industry (advising a number of leading publishers, authors, literary estates and content platforms) and in cutting edge issues such as the intersection between AI and IP.
Shireen has been listed as both a recommended IP lawyer and a recommended publishing lawyer by Chambers and The Legal 500 for many years. She has been ranked by IP Stars as a 'Top 250 Women in IP 2025', 'Trade mark star 2025', and 'Transactions Star 2025'.
Shireen was a council member of the Advertising Standards Authority, adjudicating on advertising complaints, for six years. She currently sits on the Portman Group Independent Complaints Panel and the Games Rating Authority Appeals Panel.
Lizzie has a diverse commercial disputes practice and wide-ranging experience of litigation and arbitration including urgent injunctions, appeals and group litigation. Lizzie acts for a wide range of clients, from high net worth individuals to large corporates, including technology companies, established brands across a broad range of industries, public sector entities and startups.
Lizzie has particular expertise in commercial disputes with a technology angle. Lizzie advises on traditional IT disputes (involving hardware, software development, outsourcing and licensing) and disputes involving emerging technologies (including artificial intelligence, digital assets and blockchain). In addition, Lizzie advises on disputes arising out of cyber-attacks and online payment frauds, disputes involving investments into technology companies, disputes about technology procurement processes and the management and resetting of distressed digital transformation projects.
Lizzie is recognised as a "Key Lawyer" in Commercial Litigation and Artificial Intelligence in The Legal 500. Clients say Lizzie “is the best commercial litigator around” and praise her “calm, responsive and very creative approach delivered with considerable expertise”.
Lizzie is the author of the Practical Law practice note AI Disputes and Risk Mitigation and the book A Practical Guide to Smart Contracts and the Law and regularly speaks at industry events.
Lizzie graduated from the University of Cambridge with a First Class degree in Law in 2010 before training and qualifying at Herbert Smith Freehills, where she worked on a variety of complex litigation and arbitration matters for a number of years, before joining Harbottle & Lewis in 2017. Lizzie is a member of the Society for Computers & Law, the Tech Disputes Network, the Cyber Fraud and Asset Recovery Network and the Silicon Valley Arbitration & Mediation Center.
Her areas of specialism include book publishing agreements, audio and podcasting agreements, copyright analysis and advice including chain-of-title research, and rights acquisition and exploitation including book-to-screen and book-to-stage deals.
Before qualifying as a lawyer, Zoey studied English Language & Literature at the University of Oxford, obtaining a first class degree, and worked in an number of bookshops, including Waterstones, Harrods’ bookstore and Heywood Hill. Zoey is a member of The British Literary and Artistic Copyright Association and the Copyright Committee of the Association of Learned & Professional Society Publishers.
Her experience also includes advising on data protection disputes and technology and media related disputes, including contractual disputes and domain name recovery. Marissa advises clients across a range of sectors, including theatre, publishing, film, tv, music, games, technology and retail, on the management of their global trade mark portfolios and the enforcement of their soft IP rights. She has experience advising on all phases of a dispute, from pre-action correspondence through to trial, in UKIPO, IPEC, High Court and Court of Appeal proceedings.
Marissa has a particular interest in the intersection between artificial intelligence, the creative industries and intellectual property law, and has advised a number of clients on cutting edge copyright issues arising from generative AI.
Prior to working in law, she co-founded and produced a number of national tours for an award-winning theatre company. Marissa has since advised a number of notable theatre and publishing clients on a range of industry-specific and time-sensitive IP issues, and has been recognised as a "Key Lawyer" for these industries in the The Legal 500 2024 guide. Marissa holds a Postgraduate Diploma in IP Law and Practice from the University of Oxford.
Noonie advises on a range of intellectual property disputes relating to trade marks, passing off, copyright and design rights, acting for clients across a broach range of sectors. She has experience advising clients at each stage of a dispute in proceedings before the UKIPO, IPEC and High Court.
In addition to her litigation experience, Noonie works with clients on all aspects of IP portfolio management and enforcement, with a focus on the retail, media, publishing, music consumer technology, and food and drink sectors.
Prior to joining Harbottle & Lewis in 2025, Noonie was an associate in the IP & technology litigation team at RPC, where she qualified in 2022.
Jacky has acted for clients ranging from leading global multinationals to early-stage companies across sectors such as retail, IT, healthcare, energy and financial services.
He has particular experience in technology focused contracts (IT services, software development and licensing, SaaS, SLAs, supply, manufacturing and distribution agreements, white label and collaboration agreements).
Jacky has advised on a variety of non-contentious IP issues (including source code licensing, open source software, assignment and infringement). He also advises corporate buyers and sellers in M&A transactions and data protection matters (drafting privacy notices, compliance policies and data subject access requests (DSAR)).
Jacky supports clients by providing training to legal teams and working with key stakeholders in creating internal policies and best practices to navigate the evolving regulatory landscape on key areas such as the EU Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), GDPR and AI.
Jacky trained at DLA Piper, where he completed a secondment to Unilever advising on a wide range of commercial, sports sponsorships and endorsements, advertising and IP matters. Jacky also worked in-house at a leading US private equity backed software and payments company where he acted on various supply of goods and services, payment, technology litigation and AI matters.