We are pleased to release the English translation of Guiding Case No. 20, the first Guiding Case on intellectual property: Shenzhen Siruiman Fine Chemicals Co., Ltd. v. Shenzhen Kengzi Water Supply Co., Ltd. and Shenzhen Kangtailan Water Treatment Equipment Co., Ltd., An Invention Patent Infringement Dispute (available at ). The Supreme People’s Court rendered the original judgment on December 20, 2011, revoking the first and second instance judgments rendered by the Intermediate People’s Court of Shenzhen Municipality, Guangdong Province, and the Higher People’s Court of Guangdong Province, respectively.

Guiding Case No. 20 is among the newest and largest batch of Guiding Cases, Guiding Cases Nos. 17 through 22, released by the Supreme People’s Court to date. We have posted the Chinese versions of all of the Guiding Cases part of this latest batch on our website at . We will release the English versions of the rest of the batch soon.

The CGCP Team works hard to produce high-quality English translations of the Guiding Cases and we are excited to present this first Guiding Case on intellectual property. Let us know how the CGCP has been doing by sending your views to contactcgcp@law.stanford.edu. We would love to hear your feedback.

For further updates, please subscribe to our mailing list by visiting . You may also connect us via , , and

Thank you for your support!

[The original can be found on the .]

The post 1st Guiding Case on Intellectual Property Now Available in English! appeared first on IPOsgoode.

is a research group partnership between Stanford Law School and Stanford University’s Computer Science Department. Run by Directors Michael Genesereth and Roland Vogl, the research group focuses on the intersection of software technology and law, and promotes legal technology to empower all parties within the legal system. The research performed within the group is sometimes spun out into Silicon Valley start-ups. CodeX’s current focus is on . Computational law is as “the study of formal representations and automated reasoning with laws (governmental regulations, business rules, and contracts) in electronically-mediated domains.”

The CodeX placement is a unique IP Intensive placement because the Center’s research goes far beyond intellectual property law. This provides a challenge and an opportunity to the IP Intensive Intern to find or create a computational law project within the subject of intellectual property. Students from the two worked for a and conducted research within the legal technology and informatics area. With the approval of the CodeX Directors, I created a project to apply computational law concepts to the patent system.

My project consisted of interpreting the patent prosecution system of both the U.S. and Canada into separate finite state machines (FSMs). The FSMs were then used to generate code that captured the various states and transitions found within the FSM. A software library was then created to capture this logic, in the hopes of a legal technology platform for patent system software tools. The project was a very educational process for me, and like most software systems, habitually behind schedule. Through the process I realized the potential that exists within the legal technology field and the challenges that this technology must overcome. The possibilities are great: a properly designed legal technology product can greatly improve access to justice and, if it is disruptive enough, could usher in a drastic change to the legal industry. Intellectual property systems are prime candidates for computational law tools: they operate around , information about the system is , and they do not face some of the jurisdictional challenges that other legal systems face due to well-defined .

The overall experience of my internship was, in a word, incredible. Stanford, California does not know how to discourage any idea, thought, or dream. Everyone you share your thoughts with is legitimately interested in what you would like to achieve, and will do anything they can to help. You get a very good sense of why this area became known as Silicon Valley, and why start-ups try to move down here. Impossible does not exist.

I come home to Toronto happy though, knowing that our local information technology industry is in good hands. While we may not share the high levels of optimism for every idea, the technical ability and management skills found in the Greater Toronto Area are equal to what is seen in Silicon Valley. The key difference between the two markets is the experience of the entrepreneur, which will come to Toronto in time.

The IP Intensive program is a unique opportunity to gain valuable insight into the real legal issues that exist outside the walls of a law school. I would have never been able to meet so many interesting people working on legal problems that are not traditionally discussed in law school. This experience has been the highlight of my three years at Osgoode Hall Law School. I would like to thank Professor Vaver, Professor D’Agostino, and Michelle Li from IP Osgoode for running such a fantastic program, and Roland Vogl and Robert Lee from CodeX for partnering with IP Osgoode and being very supportive during my term.

Mark Bowman is a JD Candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School and was enrolled in Osgoode’s Intellectual Property Law Intensive Program. As part of the program requirements, students were asked to write a reflective blog on their internship experience.

The post IP Intensive Program: Interning at CodeX, at Stanford University: The Highlight of My Law School Experience appeared first on IPOsgoode.

Although we called it the “Stanford” or the “” placement, it could have just as easily been called the Silicon Valley placement. Truthfully, as have pointed out, there is little divide between university and industry. Stanford-affiliated entrepreneurs generate revenues of and have created 39,900 companies and 5.4 million jobs since the 1930s. Many of our favourite companies came out of Stanford – Google, Instagram, Netflix, Paypal just to name a few. Stanford even has what I would call a Mickey Mouse Club for entrepreneurs, a startup accelerator called , where young inventors form a community for sharing, learning, and support. From its conception two years ago, over 650 companies have applied for a spot at StartX with about 60 accepted. These companies have collectively fundraised over $88 million in funding. Among my favourite experiences during my placement was taking a tour of StartX to see inventors hard at work as well as attending the demo day where startups showcased their products.

One of the StartX companies, was also a project of the center I was placed at, . CodeX is a multidisciplinary laboratory between the Law and Computer Science departments at Stanford and focuses on legal technology and informatics. You may be unfamiliar with legal technology despite, perhaps, being well-versed in the law and legal industry generally. Like other kinds of technological innovation, legal technology is beginning to grab a foothold in Silicon Valley but is virtually unheard of elsewhere in the world.

I will explain what legal technology is with an example. Imagine that there was some way of compiling litigation data so that you could predict with some confidence what the outcome of a trial will be based on who the parties are, which law firms are representing them, what the issue is, and which judge is trying the case. Imagine that this information could help you decide whether to settle and if so, how much to settle for. This is exactly what founded by Professor Mark Lemley in 2006 is in the business of doing for intellectual property litigation. Lex Machina uses crawlers to extract documents from and performs analytics on its collected data to help lawyers and companies to make decisions. Lex Machina also recently released a very interesting on the litigation patterns of patent trolls. The study analyzed 500 cases over five years and compared the behaviour of trolls (called “monetizers” in the paper) and operating companies. They plan to release a new paper with a much greater sample (approximately 12,000 cases) for which I have been conducting research for.

Of course, litigation data analysis is just one kind of legal technology. Law Gives focuses on access to justice by providing the public with legal information and connecting potential clients with pro bono lawyers when necessary. allows users to compare legal fees between attorneys. provides quick and cost-efficient e-discovery services. generates documents for wills and estate planning. The list goes on – and all of these companies have looked to CodeX and Stanford for mentoring and support. Stanford is more than just a Mickey Mouse Club for entrepreneurs; the flow of people and ideas go both ways.

Stanford is an institution that always has its doors open, whether it’s for public with speakers from to or taking a class at the famed . Over the course of my internship, I attended a dozen meetings, met incredibly interesting people, many of whom were experts of law, technology, or often, both, analyzed technology transfer policy, , saw the , took a tour of the Google campus, researched patent cases, wrote a privacy policy article, and got a glimpse of the future of the legal industry. Not only did I gain valuable experience, I learned to view law in a different way.

*Oh, and I also ate dinner behind Mark Zuckerberg and his wife so I got in some celebrity watching after all.

Nancy Situ is a JD Candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School and was enrolled in Osgoode’s Intellectual Property Law Intensive Program. As part of the program requirements, students were asked to write a reflective blog on their internship experience.

The post Technology Stars in Silicon Valley - An Intensely IP Semester at Stanford: A Semester in Osgoode’s IP Intensive Program appeared first on IPOsgoode.

Both students currently maintain a blog chronicling their insights as Visiting Researchers in the heart of Silicon Valley. To follow their experiences, see the links below:

Nancy Situ:

Maximilian Paterson:

The post The CodeX Experience: Life as a Visiting Researcher at Stanford appeared first on IPOsgoode.