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Much of the conversation around artificial intelligence and legal technology has it's sights very firmly focused on the future and rarely touches on the here and now. In our personal lives, AI of one kind (and there are many) or another has quietly arrived without much in the way of fanfare at all. For some people, a combination of the burgeoning Internet of Things and AI will mean that their coffee machine can remind their fridge to order more milk. It has the potential to quietly solve many problems...like finally ending the rows about who put the empty carton back in the fridge.

In much the same way, despite fears of AI replacing employees, AI and machine learning have already arrived in many law firms and legal departments. But do we know how many and to what extent?

I have never conducted an orchestra but I can see that it must be a very skilled and complex matter indeed. It is an excellent analogy for managing a trademark portfolio with a dependence on excellent timing, perfectly synchronised actions and a very quick ear for any discordant notes. Managing a large international portfolio then is as if half of your musicians have dialled in on a conference call from a range of other locations.

As every student of law quickly learns, there is a vast gulf of difference between the theory of law and its application in practice. The Madrid System of filing for international trademark registrations is a prime example. In theory, the Madrid System administered by the World Intellectual Property Office (WIPO) in Geneva offers a simplified and lower cost solution to managing international trademark registrations. There can be little doubt that compared to the previous system which often involved hiring local counsel in every country, many improvements have been achieved with undoubtedly, more to come. However, ‘simplified’ remains a relative term and complications still abound for the unwary!

Time-consuming.

If we had to describe the trademark search and registration process in one word, that would be it.

Like other bureaucratic processes, trademarking involves many hairsplitting steps to approval: Filling out paperwork, waiting on rounds of evaluations, and potentially dealing with cumbersome oppositions. It's enough to make any applicant's head spin.

There was an excellent profile of TrademarkNow and the work we do on the FastCoLabs section of the Fast Company magazine web site, titled How Do I (Really) Know If My Startup Is Infringing On Trademarks? 

Redefining trademark clearance with intelligent legal technology. Intelligent technologies have the potential to profoundly transform the market for legal services. The intelligent trademark analysis solutions from the Finnish startup TrademarkNow are one example of this -(Published in IPRinfo 1/2013 ). 

The advance of technology in the legal world is no longer news. More and more law firms and legal departments are leveraging intelligent assistance to fulfill requirements to achieve more with less.

We were flattered when a 2016 BBC News article about legal technology included our company TrademarkNow. However, we were somewhat surprised that it questioned the use of AI for legal technology.

Everywhere you go people are talking about going green and how it impacts the environment. From chemicals to plastic bags, people are trying to come up with new and innovative ways to make our planet more environmentally sustainable.  

We recently hosted a webinar with Richard Tromans, Founder of Tromans Consulting, which advises lawyers on the adoption of Legal AI. We explored the relationship between machine and lawyers and what that burgeoning relationship might mean for us all.