Walt Disney, Comcast’s Universal, and Warner Bros Discovery have fended off a bid from ​China’s MiniMax to dismiss their lawsuit in California federal court ‌over its alleged theft of their intellectual property ​to build its Hailuo image-and video-generating AI system. U.S. ⁠District Judge Stanley Blumenfeld on Friday rejected MiniMax’s arguments at an early stage of the case that the studios failed to ‌make a valid claim and that the U.S. court lacked jurisdiction over the company.

Spokespeople and ‌attorneys for the companies did not immediately respond ‌to ⁠requests for comment on the decision on Tuesday. The ⁠studios sued MiniMax last year, alleging it trained Hailuo on their copyrighted material, and used their characters to market Hailuo as a “Hollywood studio ​in your pocket.” ‌

They alleged Hailuo generated images and videos, including characters from the Marvel universe, “Star Wars” movies, and other blockbuster franchises without permission. The case is one of many filed by ‌major media companies, authors, news outlets, and other ​copyright holders against tech companies for allegedly using their content without permission to train AI systems. ⁠The studios have separately filed similar lawsuits against the AI company Midjourney that are ongoing.

MiniMax argued that the California ‌court could not hear the case because the company does all of its business in China. But Blumenfeld said there was evidence that the company was offering the Hailuo app in the United States.

Blumenfeld also rejected MiniMax’s argument that the studios failed to bring a ‌valid claim, finding the studios’ complaint “plainly alleges plausible claims” for ​copyright infringement.