As I wrote here earlier this month, tomorrow was the scheduled start date for the trial in Thomson Reuters v. ROSS Intelligence, in which TR is alleging that the now-shuttered legal research startup ROSS violated its copyrights by stealing content from Westlaw to build its own product.
But today the judge overseeing the trial, 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Stephanos Bibas, sitting by designation in the U.S. District Court in Delaware, issued an oral order continuing the trial:
Based on this morning’s discussion with the parties, I CONTINUE this trial without setting a future date. I rescind all rulings made orally to the parties at the Zoom teleconference on Tuesday, August 20, 2024. Instead, I invite Thomson Reuters to renew its motions for summary judgment on those issues and Ross to renew its cross-motion for summary judgment on fair use. Thus, the parties may submit two sets of additional briefing on (1) copyrightability, validity, and infringement, and (2) the defense of fair use. In the briefing, the parties may also choose to address merger, scenes a faire, copyright misuse, and innocent infringement, as I instructed this morning. The parties shall meet and confer on a new briefing schedule, page limits, and dates for a two-day summary judgment hearing. The parties shall propose a joint scheduling order to the Court by 5 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, August 28.
The order followed a request for a continuance filed by ROSS earlier this week. That request was filed under seal so I am not able to say the basis.