In re Google Generative AI Copyright Litigation

This consolidated class action combines two related matters before the Hon. Eumi K. Lee in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California: (1) Jill Leovy, individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated v. Google LLC, Case No. 5:23-cv-03440-EKL, and (2) Jingna Zhang, Sarah Andersen, Hope Larson, and Jessica Fink v. Google LLC and Alphabet Inc., Case No. 5:24-cv-02531-EKL. The cases were unified pursuant to a status report on the conduct of consolidated cases filed in 2024.

The Plaintiffs allege that Google LLC directly infringed their exclusive rights under the Copyright Act by copying, reproducing, and embedding their protected works into its generative artificial intelligence models without authorization. Through the creation and training of its AI systems, Gemini (formerly Bard) and Imagen, Google allegedly made multiple unauthorized reproductions of the Plaintiffs’ works during data collection, model training, and deployment. These works were purportedly drawn from datasets such as Infiniset, C4, and LAION-400M/5B, which include copyrighted material from piracy and subscription-based platforms.

The Plaintiffs contend that Google’s conduct was deliberate and ongoing, undertaken for commercial gain through the deployment of infringing AI models across its ecosystem in violation of 17 U.S.C. § 501.

This summary is provided for educational and research purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Allegations described are those made in the filings. Please consult the underlying source documents.