Attorney Class Accuses LexisNexis and West of Taking the Lawyers’ Work to Earn Huge Profits
Attorneys claim in a federal class action that West Publishing and LexisNexis engage in “unabashed wholesale copying of thousands of copyright-protected works created by, and owned by, the attorneys and law firms who authored them,” and bundle and sell access to the works “for huge profits.”
Attorneys Edward L. White and Kenneth Elan sued West Publishing Corporation dba “West” and Reed Elsevier dba LexisNexis, in a 13-page complaint with 51 pages of exhibits and attachments.
White, an Oklahoma attorney specializing in intellectual property law, and Elan, of New York City, seek to represent all attorneys and law firms that created works that appear in LexisNexis and West’s searchable databases.
They seek damages on behalf of two classes of attorneys: those who have a registered copyright in the works, and those who do not.
White and Elan claim that West and LexisNexis created digital copies of attorneys’ copyright-protected works, put those works in their databases, and made them available to subscribers for a fee.