News publishers sue Cohere for copyright and trademark infringement

• While the NMA has advocated strongly that AI firms should compensate news publishers for their work, it waited to bring a lawsuit until it had thoroughly researched and evaluated the best path forward for its members, NMA Danielle Coffey told Axios.

Zoom in: The federal lawsuit, filed in the Southern District of New York, alleges Cohere engaged in unauthorized use of content from NMA publishers to power its AI products, which they believe violates copyright law.

• It argues Cohere will repurpose full articles, sometimes with reporters' bylines included, when prompted for a request for a specific article, thus competing directly with the news publishers.
• Like The New York Times, which sued OpenAI and Microsoft in a similar case in 2023, the NMA lawsuit alleges Cohere served summaries from paywalled articles.
• The lawsuit also alleges Cohere violated publishers' trademark rights by passing off "inaccurate," "substandard" articles its AI had created as belonging to news publishers, tarnishing their brands.
• The NMA members participating in the lawsuit include Advance Local Media, Condé Nast, The Atlantic, Forbes Media, The Guardian, Business Insider, The Los Angeles Times, McClatchy Media Company, Newsday, Plain Dealer Publishing Company, Politico, The Republican Company, Toronto Star Newspapers, and Vox Media.

Between the lines: The complaint was filed shortly after the U.S. Copyright Office changed its copyright registration processes to make them faster for digital publishers.

• Previously, the process by which digital publishers had to file for copyright protections for individual works was extremely cumbersome, limiting their ability to seek protection.

Because of those changes, Coffey explained, NMA and the publishers who are suing Cohere were able to identify thousands of specific examples of Cohere verbatim copying their copyright-protected works.

• Those examples make it possible for the publishers to argue they are owed statutory damages, strengthening their case. The New York Times makes a similar case in its lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft.

The other side: "Cohere strongly stands by its practices for responsibly training its enterprise AI," company spokesperson Josh Gartner told Axios.

• "We have long prioritized controls that mitigate the risk of IP infringement and respect the rights of holders. We would have welcomed a conversation about their specific concerns — and the opportunity to explain our enterprise-focused approach — rather than learning about them in a filing. We believe this lawsuit is misguided and frivolous, and expect this matter to be resolved in our favor."

The big picture: For the past year, the news industry appeared split in its approach to working with AI firms. While some organizations opted to sue certain AI companies, others struck deals.

• But now a new reality is starting to take shape. More news publishers are suing and striking deals simultaneously — allowing them to experiment with AI technologies while also fighting to protect their long-term rights.
• News Corp. for example, struck a lucrative five-year deal with OpenAI last year but later sued AI search engine Perplexity.
• The Atlantic, Condé Nast and Politico (through its parent Axel Springer) have all announced commercial deals with OpenAI, but are suing Cohere.

What's next: As part of the lawsuit, the publishers are seeking a permanent injunction prohibiting Cohere from using their works, should a judge find Cohere guilty of copyright and trademark infringement.