AI in legal practice – the research perspective

Anna Ronkainen, Chief Scientist, TrademarkNowLegal Geek Conference, London 2016-10-18

Relevant affiliations (list too long to fit on title slide)

•  chief scientist and co-founder, TrademarkNow

•  external lecturer, University of Turku Law School (Introduction to Legal Technology)

•  executive committee member, International Association for Artificial Intelligence and Law (industry liaison) (iaail.org)

•  organizer, Helsinki Legal Tech Meetup

•  president, Finnish Legal Tech Forum (legaltech.fi)

@ronkaine#legalgeek

What is artificial intelligence

It’s not any specific technology, it’s a research programme! A cross-disciplinary approach combining•  computer science•  psychology•  linguistics•  neuroscience•  philosophy of mind, language, ...•  robotics•  ...

@ronkaine#legalgeek

My simple practical definition for artificial intelligence

Using (or trying to use) computers to do things which people can do comparatively easily and computers cannot (or couldn’t) do at all.

→ when it starts working, it gradually stops stopped being called AI – at least until 5–10 years ago...

@ronkaine#legalgeek

What is artificial intelligence and law

•  theoretical discussions since the 1950s

•  organized (societies, conferences, journals) as a research field since the 1980s

•  some dominating themes:•  expert systems (1980s)

•  ontologies (~2000)

•  argumentation (~2010)

•  successful legal applications of broader AI research (e.g. NLP) a wake-up call in this decade

@ronkaine#legalgeek

This is what document review used to look like

@ronkaine#legalgeek

This is what due diligence used to look like

@ronkaine#legalgeek

This is what trademark search used to look like

@ronkaine#legalgeek

This is what trademark search looks like now

This is what trademark research looks like now (not AI, just great UX)

10

Trademark clearance: old vs. new

Traditional process

•  specify search strategy (wildcards, Nice classes, registries)

•  carry out 1st stage of search

•  review 1st-stage results•  select marks for which

further information is needed

•  retrieve full information•  review 2nd-stage results•  give recommendation and/

or create report

AI-powered process

•  give trademark, product, countries

•  review relevancy-ranked results (click through for more information on individual marks as needed)

•  give recommendation and/or create report

@ronkaine#legalgeek

...but don’t take my word for it!

@ronkaine#legalgeek

Why AI & law and legal tech startups need each other

“No battle plan ever survives contact with the enemy.” – Helmuth von Moltke

•  confronting theory with reality

•  capable people in academia who could be some startup’s secret weapon

•  demonstrating relevance of AI & law research

•  some startups with academic origins

•  first(?) major collaboration between Riverview Law and University of Liverpool

@ronkaine#legalgeek

...and on that note

16th International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Law (ICAIL) to be held at King’s College London June 12–16 3 days of main conference, 2 workshop daysTentative plans to also organize a legal startup event the weekend before/after; please contact me (@ronkaine, anna@tmnow.com) if interested in speaking/sponsoring/attending

More info: http://nms.kcl.ac.uk/icail2017/

@ronkaine#legalgeek