Doctrine (also known as Doctrine.fr) is a legal search engine created, in 2016, to improve access to legal information by assembling a repository of

jurisprudence Jurisprudence, also known as theory of law or philosophy of law, is the examination in a general perspective of what law is and what it ought to be. It investigates issues such as the definition of law; legal validity; legal norms and values ...

. The French startup uses

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...

to centralise legal information and make it accessible to

legal profession Legal profession is a profession in which legal professionals study, develop and apply law. Usually, there is a requirement for someone choosing a career in law to first pass a bar examination after obtaining a law degree or some other form of l ...

als.

History

Doctrine was created in June 2016 by Nicolas Bustamante, Antoine Dusséaux, and River Champeimont. In 2020, Doctrine launched the "Document Analyzer" feature, which detects and enriches legal sources in documents. In April 2023, the company announced that it would be acquired by the investment funds

Summit Partners Summit Partners is an American investment firm based in Boston, Massachusetts. The firm focuses on investing in technology, healthcare, life sciences and other growth industries. Background Summit Partners was founded in 1984 by E. Roe Stamps ...

and Peugeot Invest for more than €100 million. In December 2023, Doctrine announced its acquisition of Jobexit, marking the company's first acquisition. In 2024, Doctrine expanded into

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. That same year, it received coaching from the CNIL on

GDPR The General Data Protection Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2016/679), abbreviated GDPR, is a European Union regulation on information privacy in the European Union (EU) and the European Economic Area (EEA). The GDPR is an important component of ...

and signed a partnership agreement with the Paris Bar.

Business model

The search engine relies on

algorithm In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm () is a finite sequence of Rigour#Mathematics, mathematically rigorous instructions, typically used to solve a class of specific Computational problem, problems or to perform a computation. Algo ...

s and artificial intelligence and is commercialised on a subscription-based model.

Legal proceedings

Doctrine has been involved in several

disputes Controversy (, ) is a state of prolonged public dispute or debate, usually concerning a matter of conflicting opinion or point of view. The word was coined from the Latin ''controversia'', as a composite of ''controversus'' – "turned in an oppo ...

. Firstly, its competitors

LexisNexis LexisNexis is an American data analytics company headquartered in New York, New York. Its products are various databases that are accessed through online portals, including portals for computer-assisted legal research (CALR), newspaper searc ...

, Dalloz, Wolters Kulwer France, Lexbase and Lextenso accused the start-up of

unfair competition Anti-competitive practices are business or government practices that prevent or reduce competition in a market. Antitrust laws ensure businesses do not engage in competitive practices that harm other, usually smaller, businesses or consumers. ...

. In February 2023, after five years of proceedings since 2018, the Paris Commercial Court ruled in favour of ''Doctrine'' on the merits, rejecting the publishers' claims and ordering them to pay 50,000 euros in damages for abusive proceedings (the legal publishers have appealed, and the proceedings are ongoing). Doctrine was also accused of typosquatting, a charge that was dismissed in 2022. Finally, the start-up has announced that it will be taking its case to the

European Court of Human Rights The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The court hears applications alleging that a co ...

to gain access to all the decisions of the Paris Court of First Instance.

Leadership

CEO

* Nicolas Bustamante (2016–2020) * Guillaume Carrère ().

References

External links

*{{Official website, https://www.doctrine.fr 2016 establishments in France Legal research Legal software companies Online law databases