Getty Images v Stability AI – Getty granted permission to appeal

In the latest development in Getty Images' IP infringement claim against Stability AI, Getty Images has been granted permission to appeal the High Court's judgment on the question of secondary copyright infringement. 

The High Court's judgment 

The High Court handed down its judgment last month (November 2025), delivering a mixed outcome that largely favoured Stability AI. You can read our article on the High Court's decision here: Getty Images v Stability AI: A landmark IP battle in the age of Generative AI - Burges Salmon

In her judgment, Joanna Smith J held that an early version of Stable Diffusion (the generative AI product at the heart of the case) had technically infringed Getty's trade mark rights but the infringements were historic and limited in scope. The lion's share of Getty's trade mark claim failed, as did its claim for secondary copyright infringement. 

Getty had withdrawn its primary copyright infringement claim during the trial because of an issue of geography and jurisdiction: Stable Diffusion had been trained outside the UK. Getty's copyright case therefore turned on its secondary infringement claim, which essentially argued that Stable Diffusion was itself an “infringing copy” imported into the UK and dealt with by Stability AI. This is the element of the judgment Getty is to appeal. 

Getty's appeal

A key question in the appeal will be whether an AI model or other intangible article must store an actual copy of a work within itself in order to qualify as an “infringing copy”. In its High Court claim Getty did not claim that Stable Diffusion was itself a copy, or that it stored copies of copyright works within itself. Instead, Getty's (unsuccessful) secondary infringement claim was that Stable Diffusion was an “infringing copy” nevertheless, because the making of its model weights would have constituted infringement of the copyright works had it been carried out in the UK. 

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If you would like to discuss any of the issues raised in this case, please contact Emily Roberts, Harry Jewson, Chloe Perea Poole or another member of the IP team.