By Blake Brittain

May 26 (Reuters) - Walt Disney DIS.N, Comcast's CMCSA.O Universal, and Warner Bros Discovery WBD.O 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.

The case is Disney Enterprises Inc v. MiniMax, U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, No. 2:25-cv-08768.

For the studios: David Singer, Andrew Sullivan, Andrew Thomas, Julie Shepard and Lauren Greene of Jenner & Block

For MiniMax: Robert Schwartz, Aaron Perahia, Bradley Kahn and Daniel Posner of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan

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Disney, Universal, Warner Bros Discovery sue China's MiniMax for copyright infringement