Lex Machina, Inc. is an IP litigation research company and division of LexisNexis that develops legal analytics data and software. The company started as a project at Stanford University within the university's law school and computer science department before launching as a startup in Menlo Park, California. Lex Machina provides a SaaS product that is available for free to federal courts, academics and students, and select non-profits. It consults clients such as law firms or corporate general counsels and provides risk advisory services through its IP analytical reference engine.
History
Lex Machina initially began in 2006 as a public interest project at Stanford University by Professor Mark Lemley and co-founders George Gregory and Joshua Walker. The project was developed within the university's law school and computer science department under the IP Litigation Clearinghouse project. Lex Machina was incorporated in 2008 and launched the following year. The name "Lex Machina" is a Latin phrase meaning "law machine" that Walker had used in a research paper he wrote in 2004. Walker was named the CEO of the company until venture capitalistJosh Becker took over in 2011. In 2015 the company was acquired by LexisNexis.
Company developments
Lex Machina is based in Menlo Park, just north of Palo Alto and Stanford. While still a public interest project at Stanford, Lex Machina generated approximately $3 million in donations. In 2012, the company reportedly received $2 million in funding led by X/Seed Capital Management. Lex Machina generated another $4.8 million in a Series A round of funding in 2013 led by Cue Ball Capital.
Services
Lex Machina has developed a catalog of legal data derived from court cases and documents on intellectual property law. The information is compiled together and converted into searchable text files that clients access through a search engine. The majority of the data provided by the SaaS program is optimized for patent information, copyrights, antitrust cases, and trademarks. Lawyers can use the information to learn more about judges, examine client histories, and predict potential case outcomes by searching for similar patents cases and outcomes. The services Lex Machina provides can be used within a variety of industries and the company has had clients ranging from law firms to companies such as eBay, Microsoft, and Shire Pharmaceuticals. Lex Machina allows qualifying US academic institutions, and other public-interest entities to access its services for free.
