Fastcase has sued Alexi, alleging unlawful use of its legal database to train AI models. Alexi disputes all claims, calling the issue a misunderstanding.
Fastcase has filed a lawsuit against Canadian legal technology company Alexi, alleging breach of contract, trade secret misappropriation, and trademark infringement tied to the development of Alexi’s AI-powered legal research platform.
Filed in U.S. federal court in Washington, D.C., the complaint claims Alexi used Fastcase’s proprietary online law library to “shortcut the massive investment required to build a comprehensive commercial legal-research platform,” despite a licensing agreement that Fastcase says expressly prohibited redistribution or publication of its database.
The dispute traces back to a 2021 licensing deal between the companies, two years before Fastcase merged with vLex in 2023. Earlier this year, Clio acquired vLex — and with it Fastcase — in a landmark US$1-billion transaction.
According to the lawsuit, Alexi allegedly trained its generative AI models on Fastcase data, surfaced Fastcase-sourced case law within its product, and displayed Fastcase trademarks in a way that could create “a false impression of affiliation.” Fastcase argues these actions violated the original licensing agreement and harmed the company as it expanded under vLex and now Clio.
Alexi strongly disputes the allegations.
“We believe there has been a big miscommunication and misunderstanding here, and this complaint is timed with the closing of the Clio–vLex acquisition,” Alexi CEO Mark Doble said in a statement. “We are confident that we have all the evidence needed to demonstrate that we only ever acted within the scope of our license.”
The lawsuit comes amid accelerating competition among legaltech platforms to train AI systems on proprietary caselaw corpora.
None of the allegations have been proven in court. A case schedule has not yet been set.