Class Action
In re Google Generative AI
In re Google Generative AI Copyright Litigation (consolidating Leovy v. Google, Zhang v. Google, et al.)
Where it stands
Judge Eumi Lee held a four-hour class certification hearing on February 20, 2026 covering the certification motion, Google's sanctions motion and publishers' motion to intervene, took everything under submission without ruling from the bench, and stayed discovery pending her decision.
Key ruling
Feb. 20, 2026 — class certification argued and taken under submission; no ruling issued from the bench and discovery stayed pending decision.
What is not confirmed
I could not verify the consolidated action's original filing date, and I found no reporting of a class certification ruling after the February 20, 2026 hearing — confirm whether Judge Lee has since ruled.The record
- Court
- N.D. Cal.
- Case number
- 5:23-cv-03440
- Filed
- Filing date not established
- Defendants
- Google LLC · Alphabet Inc. · Google DeepMind
- Plaintiffs
- Putative classes of authors, illustrators and visual artists (Jingna Zhang, Hope Larson, Jess Fink and others) whose works were allegedly used to train Bard/Gemini and Imagen
- Technology at issue
- Bard / Gemini and Imagen
- Relief sought
- Class-wide damages and injunctive relief for unlicensed use of copyrighted works in training data
- Counsel of record
- Bleichmar Fonti & Auld LLP · Joseph Saveri Law Firm, LLP
Claims pleaded
Sources (3)
- Authors, illustrators push for copyright owner class in case against Google AICourthouse News Service · 2026-02-20
- Will Judge Lee certify a class action v. Google in AI suit? Hearing on Feb. 20. Judge Lee stays discovery pending her decision.Chat GPT Is Eating the World · 2026-02-19
- In re Google Generative AI Copyright LitigationBleichmar Fonti & Auld LLP · 2025-01-15
This page describes a publicly filed case. This site is not counsel on this matter, nothing here is legal advice, and the allegations described are allegations unless a court has said otherwise.