Class-action against Thomson Reuters in Canada heats up
12 June 2012
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Karen Bolipata, New York
The Ontario Superior Court of Justice has denied Thomson Reuters’ motion seeking leave to appeal the class certification of Waldman v Thomson Reuters, a case that could clarify whether posting and editing legal documents online can constitute copyright infringement
A summary judgment motion has been scheduled for June 2013.
At dispute is whether Thomson Reuters has the right to copy, sell and reproduce lawyer-drafted documents for a fee. Leading the charge for the class of attorneys is Lorne Waldman, a Toronto-based immigration and human rights law attorney. He alleges Reuters infringes the attorneys’ copyrights by providing the documents through its legal database, Litigator, without their express permission.
Thomson says Waldman’s suit goes against “the open court system and access to justice, behaviour modification, and judicial economy, which are the rationales for class proceedings”.
A Thomson Reuters spokesman declined to comment on the case, citing company policy regarding...
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