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28 November 2025 / Emma Kennaugh-Gallacher
Issue: 8141 / Categories: Opinion , Artificial intelligence , Technology , Copyright , Intellectual property
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A sign of things to come?

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It may not have delivered an all-singing, all-dancing answer on AI & copyright infringement, but Getty Images v Stability AI shows the story is only just beginning, writes Emma Kennaugh-Gallagher

Getty Images is an internationally recognised provider of stock images and other materials. In January 2023, it filed infringement proceedings in the English High Court against Stability AI Ltd, creator of the generative artificial intelligence (AI) model Stable Diffusion. In Getty Images (US) Inc and others v Stability AI Ltd [2025] EWHC 2863 (Ch), Getty claimed that Stability AI had assembled databases of millions of images sourced from Getty’s websites without consent and then used them to train Stable Diffusion. Getty argued that this amounted to both primary and secondary infringement of its copyright, database rights, trade mark infringement and passing off.

As one of the first of its kind worldwide, Getty’s case, as originally filed, was expected to have a very significant result, as it intended to test the application of UK copyright and

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Secondments, disciplinary procedures and appeal chaos all feature in a quartet of recent rulings. Writing in NLJ this week, Ian Smith, barrister and emeritus professor of employment law at UEA, examines how established principles are being tested in modern disputes
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The AI revolution is no longer a distant murmur—it’s at the client’s desk. Writing in NLJ this week, Peter Ambrose, CEO of The Partnership and Legalito, warns that the ‘AI chickens’ have ‘come home to roost’, transforming not just legal practice but the lawyer–client relationship itself
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A High Court ruling involving the Longleat estate has exposed the fault line between modern family building and historic trust drafting. Writing in NLJ this week, Charlotte Coyle, director and family law expert at Freeths, examines Cator v Thynn [2026] EWHC 209 (Ch), where trustees sought approval to modernise trusts that retain pre-1970 definitions of ‘child’, ‘grandchild’ and ‘issue’
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