Agence France-Presse copyright infringement lawsuit against Google is based on an uncharted territory referring to the legal grounds on which headlines and news article summaries can be used without the consent of the owner. The case has brought into the spot light the issue of republishing article titles, quotes or even paragraphs without the owner's explicit permission, even in the case when the actual source is specified.

U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler has not dismissed the Agence France-Presse lawsuit against the Mountain View Company, as Google has demanded and instead ordered the two involved parties to undertake a reconstruction of Google News pages from 2003 to 2004. A potential decision in this case could implement a precedent for Web related copyright law. AFP alleged that Google News search was violating copyright laws when it returned its articles to the news queries.

In March 2005, Agence France-Presse asked Google for $17.5 million dollars in damages following its news content being posted on Google News. AFP, the world's oldest news agency has accused Google of removing photo credits and copyright notices and of unlawfully incorporating content into Google News.