On Tuesday, Judge Stephanos Bibas of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit granted a partial summary judgment in Thomson Reuters’ lawsuit against legal research startup ROSS Intelligence alleging copyright infringement. Bibas ruled that ROSS infringed on 2,243 Westlaw headnotes that “summarize key points of law and case holdings,” according to the court filing.
“I grant summary judgment on substantial similarity for Thomson Reuters on the 2,243 headnotes listed in Appendix A, finding that the Bulk Memo questions were substantially similar to them. Again, I grant summary judgment only on the headnotes for which substantial similarity is so obvious that no reasonable jury could find otherwise,” Judge Bibas wrote in the ruling.