Presented at the Legal Geek Conference in London 2016-10-18

1. AI in legal practice –
the research perspective
Anna Ronkainen, Chief Scientist, TrademarkNow
Legal Geek Conference, London 2016-10-18

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. This is what document review
used to look like
@ronkaine
#legalgeek

7. This is what due diligence
used to look like
@ronkaine
#legalgeek

8. This is what trademark search
used to look like
@ronkaine
#legalgeek

9. This is what trademark search
looks like now

10. This is what trademark research
looks like now (not AI, just great UX)
10

11. 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

12. ...but don’t take my word for it!
@ronkaine
#legalgeek

13. 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

14. ...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 days
Tentative 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