IP Law Daily, COPYRIGHT NEWS: Hollywood joins the fray against AI-generated images, (Jun 12, 2025)

By Matthew Hersh, J.D.

Movie giants Disney and Universal file suit against Midjourney.

A leading artificial intelligence-powered image creation service allows its users to create infringing images containing characters from Star Wars, The Simpsons, Frozen, Toy Story, and a host of other well-known movies and television shows, a new federal complaint alleges. The strongly-worded 110-page complaint, which takes aim at hugely popular image service Midjourney, calls the service a “virtual vending machine” of copyrighted works and accuses the service of being “the quintessential copyright free-rider” and “a bottomless pit of plagiarism” (Disney Enterprises Inc. v. Midjourney Inc., No. 2:25-cv-05275 (C.D. Cal. filed Jun. 11, 2025)).

The lawsuit involves three giants in the entertainment sphere. One set of plaintiffs is made up of Disney Enterprises, Marvel Characters, Lucasfilm, and Twentieth Century Fox—all of which are part of the Disney family. A second set of plaintiffs consists of Universal City Studios Productions and DreamWorks Animation—both part of the Universal family. On the other side is Midjourney, a company with over 20 million users that, according to the complaint, surpassed $200 million in revenue in 2023, and reportedly made $300 million in revenue in 2024.

The lawsuit targets Midjourney’s Image Service, which was launched on the Discord platform in 2022 before moving to Midjourney’s own website in 2023. The most recent version of the service, launched in April of this year, is a commercial service offering four different tiers that range from $10 to $120 per month. The four tiers of service differ in the number of images a subscriber can receive and the amount of computer processing power that will be available to them.

The lawsuit alleges that Midjourney makes available to its users “innumerable unauthorized copies” of Disney and Universal copyrighted works. “If a Midjourney subscriber submits a simple text prompt requesting an image of the character Darth Vader in a particular setting or doing a particular action,” the complaint alleges, “Midjourney obliges by generating and displaying a high quality, downloadable image featuring Disney’s copyrighted Darth Vader character.” Users can also generate images of a wide variety of other characters from Disney and Universal franchises, the complaint asserts, including Yoda and R2D2 from the Star Wars franchise, Bart and Homer from The Simpsons, superheroes Deadpool, Iron Man, Spider-Man, and the Hulk, and a host of other popular character including Buzz Lightyear, Wall-E, Princess Elsa, Simba, and countless others.

The lawsuit also alleges that Midjourney reproduces copyright characters even in response to prompts that do not specifically ask for those characters. For example, the complaint asserts, a prompt for “man in robes with light sword, movie screen cap” generated an image of Luke Skywalker, while a prompt for “popular 90’s animated cartoon with yellow skin” generated response with Simpsons characters. In one particular test search, the complaint alleges, a prompt for the single word “screencap” generated output that copied Disney’s Spider-Man and Loki characters from its Marvel franchises, and Elsa from Frozen.

The lawsuit brings claims of direct and secondary copyright infringement and demands the larger of either direct or statutory damages, restitution of unlawful proceeds, and injunctive relief.

The Case is No. 2:25-cv-05275.

Attorneys: David R. Singer (Jenner and Block LLP) for Disney Enterprises Inc., Marvel Characters, Inc., MVL Film Finance LLC, Lucasfilm Ltd. LLC, Twentieth Century Fox Film, Universal City Studios Productions LLLP, and DreamWorks Animation L.L.C.

Companies: Disney Enterprises Inc.; Marvel Characters, Inc.; MVL Film Finance LLC; Lucasfilm Ltd. LLC; Twentieth Century Fox Film; Universal City Studios Productions LLLP; DreamWorks Animation L.L.C. Midjourney Inc.

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