By Karen Freifeld
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Associated Press won a ruling in a copyright lawsuit against news aggregator Meltwater News Service over its use of AP story excerpts without paying licensing fees.
U.S. District Court Judge Denise Cote in Manhattan ruled in favor of the Associated Press before a trial with one exception, according to a court filing on Wednesday.
The judge did not explain the exception and her full decision has not yet been released.
A spokesman for Meltwater did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Meltwater is a subscriber-only electronic clipping service for corporate customers who want to monitor news coverage of their industries and themselves.
AP views the company as a competitor, and sued in February 2012 for copyright infringement.
"This ruling makes it crystal clear that Meltwater wrongly used news content from AP to create its own content, while paying none of the costs associated with creating original news content," AP CEO Gary Pruitt said in a statement Wednesday.
The judge granted the AP's motion for summary judgment, denying Meltwater's, with the one exception, according to the order filed Wednesday.
Cote said she would make her opinion public after the parties have an opportunity to request redactions.
The case is The Associated Press v Meltwater U.S. Holdings Inc, 12-cv-1087, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York.
(Reporting By Karen Freifeld; Editing by Michael Perry)
