Major Publishers Sue AI Startup Cohere for Copyright and Trademark Infringement

In a significant move, several major publishers, including Politico, Vox, and The Atlantic, along with their parent companies, are suing the AI startup Cohere for copyright and trademark infringement. According to the Wall Street Journal, this lawsuit is part of an ongoing war between the people who create content and the AI algorithms that mimic that content.

The Accusations

The publishers have accused Cohere of improperly using more than 4,000 copyrighted works to train its large language model. They claim that the startup has been passing off large segments of entire articles to its users without proper attribution. Danielle Coffey, CEO of the News Media Alliance, which organized the lawsuit on behalf of its members, stated, "Rather than create their own content, they’re stealing ours to compete with us without our permission, without compensation, and undermining our very business that feeds their machines in the first place. That’s theft."

Trademark Infringement

The suit also alleges that Cohere has engaged in trademark infringement, suggesting that the algorithm would send articles to users with proper attribution, using the publisher’s name, but the article itself would be filled with hallucinated and incorrect information. One example given in the suit involves a piece published by The Guardian about Hamas’s attack on the Nova music festival in Israel, which the AI conflated with a 2020 shooting in Nova Scotia, Canada.

Seeking Damages

The publishers are seeking the maximum amount of damages under the Copyright Act, which is $150,000 per work infringed. They also want to reduce the access that Cohere has to copyrighted works and set a legal precedent to establish the terms of the playing field for licensed use of journalism for AI.

Cohere’s Response

Cohere has responded to the lawsuit, stating that it "stands by its practices for responsibly training its enterprise AI. We have long prioritized controls that mitigate the risk of IP infringement and respect the rights of holders." The company believes that the lawsuit is "misguided and frivolous" and expects the matter to be resolved in its favor.

Context

This is not the first time that an AI company has faced legal action on behalf of a publisher. The New York Times sued OpenAI and Microsoft in 2023 for copyright infringement, and News Corp, including The Wall Street Journal and New York Post, sued Perplexity in October 2024. The New York Times has also had a beef with Perplexity. Recently, a judge ruled in favor of Reuters in a suit against the AI company Ross Intelligence.

Background

Cohere is an AI startup that creates software for developers to build AI applications for business use. It also operates a chatbot for general users and has received backing from venture-capital firms like Index Ventures and companies like NVIDIA and Salesforce. The company is currently valued at $5 billion.