Dictionary publisher Britannica sues AI search engine Perplexity for copyright and trademark infringement
Britannica Group, the publisher of long-standing and well-known dictionaries such as the Encyclopedia Britannica and Webster's Dictionary, has filed a lawsuit against Perplexity for copyright and trademark infringement, alleging that its content was misused.
Britannica Files Copyright and Trademark Infringement Lawsuit Against Perplexity
Britannica-v.-Perplexity-Complaint
(PDF file) https://www.susmangodfrey.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Britannica-v.-Perplexity-Complaint.pdf
Encyclopedia Britannica sues Perplexity over AI 'answer engine' | Reuters
https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/encyclopedia-britannica-sues-perplexity-over-ai-answer-engine-2025-09-11/
'Perplexity calls itself the 'world's first answer engine,' but many of its 'answers' are Britannica answers,' said Jorge Caws, CEO of Britannica Group, which publishes dictionaries and encyclopedias under the Britannica, Merriam-Webster and Britannica Education brands. 'As today's action demonstrates, Britannica will take all necessary steps to protect the data and intellectual property that enables us to improve student outcomes, support educators in their teaching, and inform and delight learners of all ages.'
'We have invested heavily in rigorous fact-checking and maintained high editorial standards to provide trusted information and knowledge to our 20 billion monthly sessions. Britannica is, and will continue to be, the world's most trusted source of answers,' the company said.
According to the complaint, Perplexity scraped Britannica Group's websites, copied articles, and reproduced content without permission, infringing copyright. It also infringed Britannica Group's trademarks by using hallucinations to associate the AI-generated material with Britannica Group.
The Britannica Group seeks unspecified damages and an injunction to stop Perplexity from misusing the content.
It has been pointed out that Perplexity ignores the 'robots.txt' that controls the crawler's behavior and accesses prohibited websites to scrape information.
Generative AI search engine Perplexity ignores crawler-protection 'robots.txt' to extract information from websites - GIGAZINE
Perplexity has been sued by News Corp, which owns the Wall Street Journal, for copyright infringement, but claims News Corp has ignored its claims.
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