Major Entertainment Companies: Disney, Universal, Warner Bros Discovery, File Lawsuit Against MiniMax for Alleged Copyright Violations
In a series of lawsuits filed in the district court in California, Walt Disney, Comcast's Universal, and Warner Bros Discovery have taken legal action against Chinese artificial-intelligence company MiniMax. The studios allege that MiniMax has infringed upon their copyrights by using their valuable characters in its AI-generated image and video service, Hailuo AI.
The studios claim that MiniMax has disregarded U.S. copyright law and treated their intellectual property as its own. They argue that MiniMax failed to act on their requests to take reasonable measures to avoid infringement. The lawsuits against MiniMax are in addition to the one filed earlier this month against another AI company, Midjourney, by the same studios.
According to the lawsuits, Hailuo AI can generate downloadable images and videos of characters such as Darth Vader from "Star Wars," Minions from "Despicable Me," and Wonder Woman. The studios are seeking any profits or financial gains from MiniMax's alleged copyright infringement, as well as a court order to halt the infringement and prevent MiniMax from offering the Hailuo AI service without appropriate copyright protections.
Warner Bros Discovery also filed a lawsuit against Midjourney, echoing the allegations made by Disney and Universal. The founder or leader name of MiniMax is not mentioned in the available search results.
MiniMax, which is reportedly targeting a valuation of more than $4 billion and seeking a public listing, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters. These cases are part of a wave of high-stakes lawsuits brought by copyright owners against tech companies like OpenAI, Microsoft, and Anthropic.
The reporting for this article was done by Varghese in Bengaluru and Chmielewski in Los Angeles. The article was edited by Pooja Desai.
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