Summary
The United States Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation issued a transfer order centralizing twelve copyright infringement lawsuits against OpenAI and Microsoft into the Southern District of New York. The Panel determined that the cases share substantial common factual questions regarding the use of copyrighted materials to train large language models, making consolidation efficient for managing complex discovery and preventing inconsistent rulings. Despite plaintiff opposition citing differing claim types and advanced pretrial stages, the Panel concluded that centralized management under an experienced transferee judge would promote judicial economy.
Topics
Practice areas
Questions Presented
- Whether the actions in MDL No. 3143 should be centralized in the Southern District of New York under 28 U.S.C. §1407.
Holdings
- The panel ordered that the actions listed on Schedule A and pending outside the Southern District of New York be transferred to the Southern District of New York for coordinated pretrial proceedings.
Factual background
Twelve copyright and DMCA actions alleging that OpenAI and Microsoft used copyrighted works without permission to train large language models were pending in two districts. The parties presented overlapping factual questions about the training of LLMs, discovery needs, and class certification issues.
Procedural history
The OpenAI defendants moved to centralize twelve related copyright and DMCA actions pending in the Northern District of California and the Southern District of New York. The JPML panel considered the parties' positions and the common factual questions and ordered transfer of the actions outside the Southern District of New York to that district.