Summary
Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. and Merriam-Webster sued OpenAI, Inc. in the Southern District of New York, alleging OpenAI unlawfully copied nearly 100,000 online articles, encyclopedia entries, and dictionary definitions to train its GPT models including ChatGPT, which reproduces near-verbatim copies of their content.[1][2][6] The complaint asserts copyright infringement and violations of the Lanham Act for false attribution when ChatGPT hallucinates answers sourced to Britannica, filed on March 13, 2026.[1][2] Britannica claims ChatGPT diverts web traffic and revenue by substituting for its sites, amid similar suits like its prior case against Perplexity AI now in discovery.[1][2][4][5]
Case details
- Court
- SDNY
- Docket number
- 1:26-cv-02097
- Filed
- Mar 13, 2026
- Status
- Active
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