A federal appeals court just settled a question every M&A lawyer should have been asking for two years: can a machine own what it creates? The answer is no. And that answer has quiet, expensive implications for anyone buying a company built on AI-generated code. Let’s enter Thaler v. Perlmutter. The Case In March 2025,…
AI’s ability to learn raises serious legal risks, as seen in Thomson Reuters v. Ross Intelligence, where a court ruled that Ross unlawfully used Westlaw’s copyrighted headnotes to train its AI. This extends to AI-generated open-source software (OSS)—if AI models fail to comply with OSS licenses, companies face legal and financial consequences.
The complexities surrounding digital copyright and contract law in the context of open-source software and artificial intelligence were proven in a recent decision by the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, significant developments have unfolded in the case involving Plaintiffs J. Doe 1, et al., against Defendants GitHub, Inc., Microsoft Corporation,…