LexisNexis Group is a corporation providing computer-assisted legal research as well as business research and risk solution services. During the 1970s, LexisNexis pioneered the electronic accessibility of legal and journalistic documents. As of 2006, the company has the world's largest electronic database for legal and public-records related information. Currently a division of Reed Elsevier, LexisNexis was first a product of the Mead Data Central company.
The Anglo-Dutch publishing company Reed Elsevier has owned LexisNexis and its predecessor company since 1994. At its inception in 1970, the database was named LEXIS by Mead Data Central (MDC), a subsidiary of the Mead Corporation. It was a continuation of an experiment organized by the Ohio State Bar in 1967.
On April 2, 1973, LEXIS launched publicly, offering full-text search in all Ohio and New York cases. In 1980, LEXIS completed its hand-keyed electronic archive of all U.S. federal and state cases. The NEXIS service, added that same year, gave journalists a searchable database of news articles. LexisNexis' world headquarters is located in Dayton, Ohio, United States.
When Toyota launched the Lexus line of luxury vehicles in 1987, Mead Data Central sued for trademark infringement on the grounds that consumers of upscale products (such as lawyers) would confuse "Lexus" with "Lexis". A market research survey asked consumers to identify the spoken word "Lexis". Survey results showed that a nominal number of people thought of the computerized legal search system; a similarly small number thought of Toyota's luxury car division. A judge ruled against Toyota, and the company appealed the decision. Mead lost on appeal in 1989 when the Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit held that there was little chance of consumer confusion. Today, the two companies have an amicable business relationship, and in 2002 implemented a joint promotion called "Win a Lexus on Lexis!"
In December 1994, Mead sold the LexisNexis system to Reed Elsevier for $1.5 billion. The U.S. state of Illinois subsequently audited Mead's income tax returns and charged Mead an additional $4 million in income tax and penalties for the sale of LexisNexis; Mead paid the tax under protest, then sued for a refund in an Illinois state court. On April 15, 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed with Mead that the Illinois courts had incorrectly applied the Court's precedents on whether Illinois could constitutionally apply its income tax to Mead, an out-of-state, Ohio-based corporation. The Court reversed and remanded so that the lower courts could apply the correct test and determine whether Mead and Lexis were a "unitary" business.
In 2000, LexisNexis purchased RiskWise, a St. Cloud, Minnesota company. In 2002 it acquired a Canadian research database company, Quicklaw. In 2004, Reed Elsevier Group, parent company of LexisNexis, purchased Seisint, Inc, of Boca Raton, Florida. Seisint housed and operated Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange (MATRIX).
Awards and recognition:
· In 2010 and 2011 the Human Rights Campaign recognized LexisNexis as a company that treats its lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees well.
· Training magazine inducted LexisNexis into its "Training Top 125" list between 2007 and 2010. In 2008 the company was 26th on the list, rising 6 places from the previous year, but in 2009 it was 71st place and by 2010 was 105th.
· In 2012, Nexis won the SIIA CODIE Award for Best Political Information Resource
· In 2013, LexisNexis SmartMeeting won the Stevie Award for sales and customer service
· In 2014, Nexis won the SIIA CODIE Award for Best Business Information Solution
· LexisNexis made the 2014 Spend Matters Almanac List for 50 Providers to watch for in the procurement sector.
Source: Wikipedia.
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