LexisNexis

LexisNexis is a popular searchable archive of content from newspapers, magazines, legal documents and other printed sources, although their primary customers are lawyers. Stories are available back to 1986. A fee is charged for using the service.

History

The service is currently owned by Reed Elsevier. It was originally created as the LEXIS service in the late 1960s by Mead Data Central, a subsidiary of the Mead Corporation, in coordination with an experiment organized by the Ohio State Bar. The NEXIS service was added later to respond to demands from journalists for an easy way to search articles. Notice the capitalization; it was very popular at the time to put the names of online computer services in all-caps.

Only in the early 1970s did the West Publishing Company recognize the pent-up demand for computerization of legal research. It responded by developing its own service, called Westlaw.

Like many corporations in the 1960s, Mead had aspirations of expanding beyond the dreary office products business and becoming a bona fide conglomerate; Lexis was but one portion of those plans. And like many of those corporations, Mead discovered the hard way that being a conglomerate was not easy. Eventually, Mead sold off Mead Data Central to return to its core competency of making office and school supplies.

When Toyota launched the Lexus line of luxury vehicles in 1989, Mead Data Central sued for trademark infringement on the theory that upscale consumers (like lawyers) would confuse Lexus with Lexis. Mead lost on appeal in 1990 when the Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit held that there was little chance of consumer confusion. Today, the two companies get along fine, with joint promotions with titles like "Win A Lexus On Lexis!"