Disney, Universal, Warner Bros Discovery sue China's MiniMax for copyright infringement

Walt Disney, Comcast's Universal and Warner Bros Discovery have jointly filed a copyright lawsuit against China's MiniMax alleging that its image- and video-generating service Hailuo AI was built from intellectual property stolen from the three major Hollywood studios.

The suit, filed in the district court in California on Tuesday, claims MiniMax "audaciously" used the studios' famous copyrighted characters to market Hailuo as a "Hollywood studio in your pocket" and advertise and promote its service.

With a simple text prompt by a subscriber, Hailuo can generate downloadable images and videos of characters such as Darth Vader from "Star Wars", Minions from "Despicable Me" and "Wonder Woman" with MiniMax Hailuo branding, the lawsuit claims.

MiniMax failed to act on the studios' requests to take reasonable measures in place at several AI services to avoid infringement, according to the lawsuit.

The studios said MiniMax actively engaged in and encouraged infringement by disregarding U.S. copyright law and treating valuable copyrighted characters like its own.

"A responsible approach to AI innovation is critical, and today's lawsuit against MiniMax again demonstrates our shared commitment to holding accountable those who violate copyright laws, wherever they may be based," the companies said in a statement.

MiniMax did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

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 the company from offering the Hailuo AI service without appropriate copyright protections.

The new complaint follows a lawsuit filed by Disney and Universal against Midjourney in June for offering a commercial service providing unauthorized AI-generated copies of its copyrighted work.

Warner Bros Discovery also sued Midjourney earlier this month, echoing the allegations made by Disney and Warner Bros Discovery.

The cases are part of a wave of high-stakes lawsuits brought by copyright owners including authors, news outlets and music labels against OpenAI, Microsoft, Anthropic and other tech companies over the unauthorized use of their content in AI training.

MiniMax, which has a subscription model, is reportedly targeting a valuation of more than $4 billion and is among the first batch of Chinese artificial-intelligence companies to seek a public listing.

The company's models and products serve more than 157 million individual users across over 200 countries and regions and more than 50,000 enterprises and developers across more than 90 countries and regions, according to its website.