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 trade mark law to both:
- the fundamental training processes behind
