JTIP Blog

On July 1, 2021, the original source code for the World Wide Web sold for $5.4 million at a Sotheby’s auction. This was not the actual source code, which is open source and freely available in the public domain, but rather a non-fungible token (NFT) version of the source code. NFTs, a new block chain […]

TRIPS Waiver and COVID-19 Policy As COVID continues to impact nations across the world, policymakers are left trying to facilitate ways to better deal with a global event of this magnitude. Public health concerns forced leaders to re-think current laws and agreements. Intellectual property law is not an outlier. To mitigate some of the effects […]

Gambling, in one way or another, has been part of American life for centuries—early colonists participated in activities such as lotteries, betting on cock fights, and other games of chance. Throughout our history, gambling has remained a source of moral debate. On one hand, it is argued that Americans should be free to use their money how […]

The Development of Artificial Intelligence Today, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has developed into deep learning. Deep learning is the ability of an AI system not only to learn but also to independently make decisions without human intervention. With the development of deep learning, services that automatically compose music or draw a picture are appearing. For example, […]

To clients, legal billing can seem “like a black box.” Many clients worry about lawyers overstating their billable hours (“bill padding”) or charging exorbitant hourly rates. By using data analytics to optimize legal billing (“data-driven billing”), law firms can stand out from their competitors and win more business.  1 – Problems that Exist in Legal […]

     Underlying the U.S. and global patent systems is the belief that granting a limited monopoly will incentivize innovation. Although climate change comes to mind as a particularly controversial topic, according to PEW Research, six in ten Americans and majorities in other surveyed countries see climate change as a major threat.  Patent filings seemed to reflect that concern […]

A Primer on Training Sets and Machine Learning.   Merging computer processing and the practice of transactional law is a concept that has been around longer than you might think.  Technologies for automating contract management and drafting tasks existed as early as the 1970’s, and consumer-facing software for automating tasks like incorporation and estate-planning have been a fixture in the legal service […]

Introduction The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the introduction of online learning platforms to elementary and secondary schools across the United States. In many ways, online learning—via Zoom, for example–has presented younger students the opportunity to continue their education during a time when they’re not able to be physically present in a classroom, but online learning has also […]

From the moment you wake up and check social media to the moment you end your day by streaming the latest binge-worthy TV show, chances are high that an algorithm is hard at work to help curate your “best life.” But the stakes are changing. Instead of simply recommending certain articles to read or movies […]

Alyson Carrel is a Clinical Associate Professor at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law.[1] Over the past four decades, scholars have debated the impact of private settlement on the broader public good.[2] However, advancing technology in multi-party computation (MPC) presents an option to reimagine how society settles disputes, transforming it from a debate mired in the […]

Innovation is a process that can be learned, practiced, and mastered. Applying Everette Rogers’s Diffusion of Innovations Theory to solve problems in the American legal industry may hold the key to addressing critical issues such as access to justice and overwhelming legal complexity. This post explores diffusion theory from a student’s perspective and through an […]

Every school day, millions of parents wave goodbye as their kids get on a bus or into a carpool to head to school. Now fast-forward 20 years and replace the driver with an autonomous driving system. Will parents be comfortable letting their kids get in that vehicle? Should a 15-year-old be able to order a […]