The much anticipated judgment in Getty v Stability AI has today (4 November 2025) been handed down with Stability AI claiming victory over the remaining copyright elements and the passing off claim.  

The court had to decide whether Stable Diffusion was an “article” for the purposes of secondary copyright infringement – it found that it isn’t as it does not store a copy of the works. It also needed to decide whether the appearance of Getty’s name in output images constituted passing off – again, the judgment is in favour of Stability AI.  

Getty was successful in relation to a limited number of infringements of its trade marks but this judgment will be disappointing for those in the creative industries who seek to protect copyright owner’s works.  

It should not be forgotten that Getty had to drop its main argument around the training of the Stability AI’s platform “Stable Diffusion”. Although there was evidence of Getty’s images being used to train Stable Diffusion there was little to no evidence to show that such training took place in the UK, which is what was needed to prove primary copyright infringement. So, as there will, undoubtedly be further cases on this point, there is still potential for this to be addressed in the courts.  

The government also continues to work on its response to the recent copyright and AI consultation with an interim report required by the end of this year ahead of its full assessment of the economic impact of the various options, which is due by March 2026 – it will no doubt take into account this judgment and the reaction to it from both the creative and AI industries.  

Until then, or until another case comes through the courts, there remains a lack of transparency and a level of uncertainty with which all concerned will not be satisfied.