Britannica Sues AI Search Engine Perplexity Over Violations

Britannica, the dictionary publisher, takes legal action against AI search engine Perplexity for copyright and trademark violations

Last updated on September 12, 2025September 12, 2025 by RS Web Solutions on Categories SEO, Artificial Intelligence

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Britannica Group Initiates Legal Action Against Perplexity

September 12, 2025, 13:58

Britannica Group, the esteemed publisher known for its iconic dictionaries, including the Encyclopedia Britannica and Webster’s Dictionary, has lodged a lawsuit against Perplexity. The lawsuit alleges copyright and trademark infringement, contending that Perplexity has improperly utilized its content.

Key Details of the Legal Dispute

Litigation Filed by Britannica Against Perplexity

Statements from Britannica Officials

“Perplexity dubs itself the ‘world’s first answer engine,’ but numerous responses it provides are derived from Britannica’s content,” remarked Jorge Caws, the CEO of Britannica Group.

“Today’s litigation underscores our commitment to safeguarding our intellectual property, crucial for enhancing educational outcomes and aiding educators’ efforts in teaching while enriching the learning experience for individuals of all ages.”

Britannica Group emphasized, “We have made substantial investments in thorough fact-checking and upheld strict editorial standards to deliver reliable information across our 20 billion monthly engagements. Britannica remains the preeminent source of trusted answers.”

Allegations Against Perplexity

The legal complaint asserts that Perplexity has engaged in scraping Britannica Group’s websites, unlawfully reproducing articles and content without explicit permission, thereby violating copyright laws. Furthermore, it is alleged that Perplexity has misappropriated Britannica Group’s trademarks, using fabricated information to link its AI-generated content with Britannica.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages along with a request for an injunction to prevent Perplexity from continuing to misuse the proprietary content.

Notably, it has been highlighted that Perplexity has disregarded the ‘robots.txt’ file, which governs the behavior of web crawlers, to access restricted websites for information scraping.

Previous Legal Challenges Faced by Perplexity

Perplexity is already embroiled in a legal battle with News Corp, the parent organization of the Wall Street Journal, over copyright infringement. The company asserts that News Corp has overlooked its previous communications related to this issue.

In response to the copyright allegations from News Corp, Perplexity has described the “ignored conversation” as an oversight, insisting that its prompt reply was overlooked despite being communicated on the same day.

Source link: Gigazine.net.

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