The Delhi High Court on Tuesday sought a response from OpenAI to a challenge by news agency Asian News International (ANI) to an order denying it interim protection in its copyright infringement suit against the ChatGPT maker. A Division Bench of Justice Avneesh Jhingan and Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora directed OpenAI to respond to ANI’s appeal and listed the matter for further hearing on December 5. ANI, which became the first Indian media organisation to take OpenAI to court over alleged copyright infringement, had filed the suit in 2024. The news agency has accused OpenAI of using its copyrighted material without authorisation to train and operate ChatGPT. The agency had sought an interim injunction restraining OpenAI from storing, reproducing, publishing or otherwise using ANI’s copyrighted content. Justice Amit Bansal, however, declined to grant the interim relief in July this year, observing that such an order would not be in the public interest.

The single judge also held that OpenAI’s storage of ANI’s published news material for training ChatGPT did not, at that stage, appear to constitute copyright infringement. The court had further observed that an injunction could cause irreparable harm not only to OpenAI but also to the wider public interest, including the development and use of artificial intelligence. ANI has now challenged those findings before the Division Bench. In its appeal, ANI has argued that Indian copyright law provides for “fair dealing” rather than the broader “fair use” doctrine followed in some other jurisdictions. According to the agency, Section 52 of the Copyright Act sets out specific exceptions and does not permit commercial exploitation of copyrighted works at scale under the provision relating to “private or personal use, including research”.