NBCUniversal

NBCUniversal — formed in 2004 and owned by Comcast since 2011 — spans Universal Pictures, DreamWorks Animation, Illumination, and the NBC networks, a portfolio that includes Shrek, the Minions, and Jurassic Park. In June 2025 it stepped into the AI wars as co-plaintiff with The Walt Disney Company in the first major Hollywood lawsuit against a generative-AI company.

The Midjourney suit

The joint complaint, filed in Los Angeles federal court on June 11, 2025, accused image generator Midjourney of mass copyright infringement — its subscribers could summon convincing Minions, Shrek, and How to Train Your Dragon imagery on demand — and alleged the company ignored requests to stop or to install technical filters. The studios branded Midjourney “the quintessential copyright free-rider and a bottomless pit of plagiarism” and sought statutory damages of up to $150,000 per infringed work plus an injunction covering its forthcoming video generator. General counsel Kim Harris framed the action as protecting artists and NBCUniversal’s investment in its content.

In September 2025 NBCUniversal joined Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery again to sue Chinese AI firm MiniMax, alleging its Hailuo video service — marketed as a “Hollywood studio in your pocket” — was built by piracy and ignored cease-and-desist letters. Midjourney has answered the studios by arguing that training on copyrighted works is transformative fair use, setting up one of the defining copyright tests of the AI era.

Like its co-plaintiffs, NBCUniversal’s objection is unlicensed use rather than the technology itself; parent Comcast has meanwhile deployed AI across its cable and streaming products. The lawsuits are a bid to force AI companies to the licensing table while the studios still hold leverage.