Later this month, the U.S. District Court in Delaware will see the commencement of a hotly anticipated trial that could have broad implications for the legal research industry. The longstanding legal dispute (see source article) between Thomson Reuters’ Westlaw and the now-defunct ROSS Intelligence will finally be brought before a jury, following four years of pretrial preparation and legal maneuvering.
Thomson Reuters first initiated litigation in 2020, accusing ROSS of appropriating its copyrighted content, specifically its headnotes and Key Number System, to develop a competing product. ROSS allegedly colluded with LegalEase Solutions, utilizing LegalEase’s Westlaw account to extract data en masse for its own use. These allegations forced ROSS to cease operations by January 2021, but the company continued to contest the lawsuit on grounds it characterized as anticompetitive.
In addition to defending itself against copyright infringement claims, ROSS escalated the fight by filing a counterclaim, accusing Thomson Reuters of engaging in monopolistic practices that violate federal antitrust laws. However, these antitrust issues will not be part of this month’s jury trial but will instead be addressed in a separate hearing on September 18, with both parties seeking summary judgment.
Judge Stephanos Bibas of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, presiding over the case, found substantial grounds to deny summary judgment motions and send the contested copyright issues to a jury trial. He ruled in favor of Thomson Reuters on a significant point, determining as a matter of law that ROSS had indeed copied Westlaw’s headnotes and other copyrighted content, with direct admissions from LegalEase supporting this claim.
Nevertheless, the case remains complex. The jury will be tasked with answering whether Thomson Reuters can validly claim copyrights over its key numbers and headnotes, which ROSS argues are unprotectable compilations or restatements of public judicial opinions.
The trial is anticipated to feature testimony from high-profile experts and industry figures, including legal scholars and leaders in legal research technology. For terms of access and additional background information, readers can follow coverage of the lawsuit’s evolution through various stages here.