Seattle Times, Newsday sue OpenAI, Microsoft over AI use
The Seattle Times and Newsday filed a joint copyright suit against OpenAI and Microsoft on Sept. 4 in the Southern District of New York, the same day summary judgment briefing opened in the consolidated In re OpenAI Copyright Infringement Litigation MDL their claims will join, per the complaint and Chat GPT Is Eating the World. Beyond copyright infringement and DMCA claims over removed authorship credits, the complaint adds a trademark-dilution count under the Lanham Act, arguing that ChatGPT and Copilot outputs which hallucinate content and misattribute it to the papers tarnish their marks. The complaint also cites industry data showing search-referral traffic to mid-sized regional publishers fell about 47% from December 2024 to December 2025, roughly double the decline at larger national outlets.
Why it matters: Filed the same day summary judgment briefing opened in the consolidated OpenAI MDL, the suit adds a Lanham Act trademark-dilution theory built on AI hallucinations — a claim that survives independently of however the underlying fair-use question is decided.
The record: OpenAIAI training & copyright litigation
Via Chat GPT Is Eating the World ↗
Posted to the wire September 4, 2026.