Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory, LexisNexis and Thomson Reuters spent the past week showing off newproductsand features at the annual American Association of Law Libraries ( AALL)  Meeting and Conference in Washington DC.  Since the close of the conference on Tuesday, each has announced a new alliance of some kind.

  • Thompson Reuters acquired HighQ Software (July 17th)
  • Wolters Kluwer formed and alliance with Docket Navigator (July 18th)
  • Lexis Nexis formed a join venture with Knowable (July 18th)

Wolters Kluwer Legal and Regulatory announced an alliance with  leading IP analytics platform Docket Navigator  which will make IP and antitrust litigation analytics available through three Cheetah™ platforms: IP Cheetah™, WK Trademark Navigator, and Antitrust & Competition Cheetah™.

 

Docket Navigator is a litigation database tool that tracks current cases from the time a complaint is filed through the filing of the notice of appeal in patent, trademark, copyright and antitrust cases and includes a daily email alert and case analytics. This strategic alliance will allow current Docket Navigator subscribers to access the platform through Cheetah™, Wolters Kluwer’s award-winning legal research platform.

“Business development and an understanding of litigation trends are continual needs for our law firm customers,” said Susan Gruesser, Product Line Director for Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory U.S. “Through Cheetah, our customers will not only be able to subscribe to our preeminent and authoritative second source material, such as Areeda and Hovenkamp’s Antitrust Law and Goldstein on Copyright, but will also have access to Docket Navigator, a strategic business development and litigation tool. We’re always looking for new ways to help our customers drive efficiency and deliver value, and we are pleased that this alliance will bring even more convenience and ease of use to their workflow.”

 

Thomson Reuters/HighQ Today  Thomson Reuters announced that it has acquired HighQ, a leading cloud based, collaboration and workflow platform for the legal and regulatory market. HighQ currently serves more than 400 customers, including more than half of the Global 100 largest law firms.

It is not hard for me to imagine the HighQ acquisition being leveraged by Thomson Reuters to extend the capabilities of the recently developed Panoramic/Elite3E platform which  integrates business and practice of law processes.

According to the press release “this acquisition will expand on the company’s strategic objective to provide more cloud-based software offerings and will meet a growing market need for legal professionals, aligning with Thomson Reuters focus on legal, tax, compliance and risk. This deal follows our recent acquisition of Confirmation, a leading provider of secure audit services, and reinforces our strategy of carefully investing to grow our core offerings in the world of business information services,” said Jim Smith, president and CEO, Thomson Reuters.”

 

.LexisNexis Legal & Professional /Knowable. has announced a joint venture with contract analytics company   Knowable. Similar to other transnational document review products such as Kira and Luminance, Knowable uses AI and machine learning  to help organizations review large portfolios of documents for due diligence and risk.

Knowable is a spin off from  Axiom  a prominent alternative legal services provider. Today I spoke with  Bob Harris, CEO of Knowable and Ritu Khanna, executive vice president, Global Strategy & Acquisitions, at LexisNexis. They confirmed that Knowable will operate independently. It appears to be a win-win for both companies. Knowable will get access to LexisNexis’  resources and LexisNexis will have the opportunity to expand its reach into customer workflow solutions.

What a busy week for the legal information industry. Good thing the weekend is coming.