{"id":137503,"date":"2025-11-24T09:42:49","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T17:42:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/11\/24\/thomson-reuters-v-ross-what-might-those-tantalizing-redactions-in-trs-brief-conceal\/"},"modified":"2025-11-24T09:42:49","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T17:42:49","slug":"thomson-reuters-v-ross-what-might-those-tantalizing-redactions-in-trs-brief-conceal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/11\/24\/thomson-reuters-v-ross-what-might-those-tantalizing-redactions-in-trs-brief-conceal\/","title":{"rendered":"Thomson Reuters v ROSS: What Might Those Tantalizing Redactions in TR\u2019s Brief Conceal?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Earlier today, I wrote about the brief filed by Thomson Reuters in its ongoing copyright litigation against the now-closed legal research startup ROSS Intelligence, which is now on an interlocutory appeal to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Like many of the documents that have been filed in this case since it began in [\u2026]<\/p>\n

Earlier today, I wrote about the brief<\/a> filed by Thomson Reuters in its ongoing copyright litigation against the now-closed legal research startup ROSS Intelligence, which is now on an interlocutory appeal to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.<\/p>\n

Like many of the documents that have been filed in this case since it began in 2020, the brief contains numerous redactions. But some of the redactions in this latest filing are particularly tantalizing \u2014 or frustrating \u2014 for what they suggest but do not reveal.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

For example, when ROSS shut down operations in December 2020, it expressly blamed TR\u2019s lawsuit<\/a>, saying that the litigation had crippled its ability to raise new financing or explore potential acquisition. Insurance coverage, it said, would enable it to continue to fight the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

But the redacted footnote you see here suggests ROSS\u2019s own executives admitted something that would tell a different story \u2014 that it was not the lawsuit that forced it to close its doors, but some other \u201creality.\u201d<\/p>\n

What follows are some of the other tantalizing redactions in the brief.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The problem is what?? How can a statement of the problem be subject to redaction? The redaction seems to relate to ROSS\u2019s claim of \u201cfaster and more accurate\u201d responses to legal research.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

OK, some key details left out here. \u201cWhen ROSS asked its\u201d \u2026 its what \u2014 and to do what? The context seems to suggest that after TR turned down ROSS\u2019s request for a Westlaw subscription, ROSS turned to someone else. Of course, we know eventually that \u201csomeone else\u201d was LegalEase, but what about in the interim.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

What did Arruda admit and van der Heijden confirm? Andrew Arruda was the CEO and cofounder of ROSS, and Tomas van der Heijden was the head of product and legal.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n
\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Based on the context, this appears to be something\u00a0 that describes some part of how Westlaw creates headnotes. TOP SECRET!<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Should we read this to suggest ROSS was trying to block its other competitors from getting access to the materials it had LegalEase develop? i suppose there is some irony in that.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Wait, did ROSS get someone else, before LegalEase, to access the Westlaw materials? I don\u2019t recall ever reading that before. If so, who was it?<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Oh c\u2019mon, you can tell us what ROSS\u2019s own expert admitted! In the context following the citation to a case where the company had not \u201csought to avoid performing its own work,\u201d did ROSS\u2019s expert admit otherwise?\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe copying was so extensive that it [REDACTED].\u201d How. Extensive. Was. It?<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t you want to know what ROSS\u2019s own AI expert said about this? Of course you do.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Maybe someday, the full story will come out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Earlier today, I wrote about the brief filed by Thomson Reuters in its ongoing copyright litigation against the now-closed legal research startup ROSS Intelligence, which is now on an interlocutory appeal to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Like many of the documents that have been filed in this case since it began in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":137504,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-137503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawsite"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/TR-v-ROSS-Redactions-Featured-1024x576-wnFEgf.png?fit=1024%2C576&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137503\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}