Thomson Reuters v. ROSS: Post-Argument Status #
- Thomson Reuters v. ROSS Intelligence at the Third Circuit (LegalAI Substack, 2026) — Oral argument was held June 11 before Judges Restrepo, Montgomery-Reeves, and Bove. No ruling issued; the Third Circuit directed counsel to file a transcript of oral argument by June 25. The court’s questions during argument reportedly focused on the transformative use test and whether the AI training context changes the fair use analysis. No timeline for a decision — Third Circuit cases typically take 3–9 months post-argument.
- AI Copyright Lawsuits 2026: Status Tracker (Axis Intelligence, 2026) — Comprehensive tracker as of June 2026: Thomson Reuters v. ROSS (pending appeal); New York Times v. OpenAI (ongoing, “most watched” per experts); multiple class actions in discovery. The era of “train first, ask later” is described as definitively over — companies now build licensing strategies before training, not after.
Regulatory: State Laws Approaching Effective Dates #
- Colorado AI Act (Wikipedia) — Colorado AI Act (SB 26-205) takes effect June 30, 2026. Its data governance provisions — reasonable care obligations around algorithmic discrimination — apply to AI developers and deployers operating in Colorado. The first US state AI law to take effect post-challenges; establishes a practical compliance benchmark.
- AI in litigation series: An update on AI copyright cases in 2026 (Norton Rose Fulbright, 2026) — Law firm overview of the litigation landscape: the Bartz $1.5B settlement (per-work pricing benchmark established) is being used as a reference point in ongoing cases; whether Judge Alsup’s June 2025 fair use finding survives appellate review is still open; the Third Circuit is the first appellate test.
Cross-links #
- AI Impact on Society Colorado AI Act (June 30) and EU AI Act (August 2) deadlines coincide with the GAAIA preemption debate — the regulatory environment is tightening at state, federal, and EU levels simultaneously.
- Emerging theme: The Third Circuit’s post-argument silence (transcript due June 25, no ruling timeline) means the most important legal question in AI training data — whether AI training is transformative fair use — will remain unresolved throughout the summer. Practitioners continue operating under Judge Alsup’s June 2025 pro-fair-use district court ruling, but that ruling is now under appellate review.
- Gap: No coverage on how the GAAIA preemption clause (which covers “development” of AI models) interacts with data-governance obligations in training data litigation. If GAAIA passes, does federal preemption also limit state-level training data oversight requirements?