Google refuses to back down in the AI scraping war despite a recent legal blow. A federal judge recently dismissed the search giant’s case against web-scraping firm SerpApi, ruling that search results themselves aren’t protected under copyright law. The court determined that Google lacks standing because the search engine does not own the underlying public data. Google confirmed to reporters that it plans to amend its complaint to keep AI scraping bots from harvesting platform data. The move signals that the company intends to persist with its legal strategy despite the court’s initial ruling.
The dispute began last December when Google filed suit under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The company alleged that SerpApi bypassed security measures to sell search data through an unauthorized service. This legal action followed similar lawsuits filed by Reddit targeting Perplexity shortly before. Both companies claimed the entities were exploiting their platforms to generate revenue without permission. The filing detailed how third-party services aggregate information to sell to developers.
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When the judge granted SerpApi’s motion to dismiss, it appeared to be a decisive win for the scraping firm. The court found Google lacked standing because it does not own public search results. A specific legal technicality invalidated the core of Google’s original argument, leaving the search giant with limited options to proceed. The dismissal meant Google could not claim copyright over facts.
Google pivots to ‘Knowledge Panels’
Google spokesperson José Castañeda said the firm will use the 21-day window to file an amended complaint. The new legal strategy focuses on a particular feature called “Knowledge Panels.” These summary boxes appear on search results pages and contain explicitly licensed media like images and text. Google claims rights holders authorized the deployment of anti-scraping protections for this distinct content rather than the general index. The company argues that these panels require a different legal approach due to the nature of the displayed media.
Attempting this legal maneuver isn’t without risk for the company. Meredith Rose, senior policy counsel at Public Knowledge, warned that Google could talk itself into a corner. If Google claims Knowledge Panels are packed with copyrighted material to stop scrapers, it risks admitting that it algorithmically reproduces unlicensed content elsewhere across search results. Such an admission could open the door to separate fair use lawsuits from content owners who feel their work is being used without permission.
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The outcome of this legal battle affects more than just Google’s relationship with SerpApi. Reddit faces similar standing issues in its pending lawsuit because it does not own the content users post. The social media company cannot claim ownership over user-generated material in the same way Google might attempt to claim rights over licensed media in panels. Both Reddit and Google are finding that ownership over raw data is harder to assert than expected.
SerpApi maintains that platforms like Google and Reddit do not own the open internet. The scraping firm insists these companies shouldn’t act as “toll collectors” for public information. Structured search data provided by the company supports major clients like Nvidia, Uber, and Adobe. These businesses rely on the ability to access and process search data to operate their own services. The firm argues that open data access benefits the broader economy rather than just the platforms hosting it.
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