Recently, Encyclopedia Britannica and its subsidiary Merriam-Webster filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against artificial intelligence company Perplexity Al Inc. In their complaint, the plaintiffs. allege that the company infringed their copyrights and trademarks through the operation of its answer engine, a tool that collects and synthesizes online users with information to provide responses to queries.

According to the filing, Perplexity engaged in web scraping practices to copy articles and definitions published on the plaintiffs’ websites, subsequently presenting them as its own and diverting traffic that would otherwise have been directed to the publishers’ platforms. The plaintiffs further contend that the company misused their trademarks by attaching their names to Al-generated content containing inaccuracies and false statements, thereby creating a likelihood of consumer confusion.

One example cited in the complaint involves the term plagiarize, where Perplexity’s output allegedly reproduced Merriam-Webster’s definition almost verbatim. The plaintiffs argue that such conduct infringes their protected works and damages their reputation by associating them with incomplete or erroneous material.

The suit seeks monetary damages, in an amount to be determined at trial, as well as injunctive relief prohibiting Perplexity from further unauthorized use of the plaintiffs’ content.

This case forms part of a growing number of legal proceedings initiated by media organizations and publishers against artificial intelligence companies accused of exploiting proprietary content for automated content generation. Prior actions include lawsuits filed by News Corp, The New York Post, Forbes, the BBC, and several Japanese media companies, all alleging unauthorized reproduction of their materials and noncompliance restrictions with web-crawling restrictions.