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Disney and Universal have jointly filed a lawsuit against AI firm Midjourney, alleging widespread copyright infringement. The lawsuit, filed on Wednesday, June 11, 2025, in a U.S. district court in Los Angeles. It is claimed that Midjourney used vast amounts of copyrighted content, including iconic characters from franchises like Star Wars, Marvel, The Simpsons, Frozen, and Despicable Me, without permission to train its image-generation tools.
The studios assert that Midjourney’s service acts as a “virtual vending machine, generating endless unauthorized copies” of their intellectual property. Disney and Universal are seeking unspecified damages, including potentially up to $150,000 per infringed work. They are also aiming to prevent Midjourney from launching an upcoming video service unless it implements appropriate copyright protection measures.
The 110-page lawsuit includes detailed visual examples to illustrate the alleged infringement, showing Midjourney-generated images that closely mimic copyrighted characters. The studios contend that Midjourney ignored their previous demands to cease infringing activities and adopt technological measures to prevent them. Midjourney, a prominent AI image generator with an estimated 20 million users and $300 million in revenue last year, has not yet publicly commented on the lawsuit.
While AI developers often argue “fair use” for training on publicly accessible data, content creators and industries like entertainment are increasingly pushing back, emphasizing the need to protect intellectual property and ensure creators are compensated for their work. The outcome of this lawsuit could set a significant precedent for intellectual property rights in the rapidly evolving AI industry.
