Imagine the taxi industry investing in Uber. Well, maybe it should have.

Despite the comparisons between lawyers and the taxi industry, the preeminent lawyers’ organization in Canada—the Canadian Bar Association, is running the Pitch—a contest to select the best legal tech startups in the country. The Pitch takes place at the CBA Legal Conference on August 12, 2016. The CBA partnered up with important players from the startup world to reward the winners.

The China Angels Mentorship Program will consider all Pitch finalists for at least a $200,000 investment.

The winners of the Pitch will also get . . . [more]

When it comes to court services and legal services, there is a huge gap between what customers really want and what they settle for. Those gaps between what people really want and what they settle for represent opportunities for new products.

In Demand Adrian Slywotzky writes that each hassle (a needless step) is a problem and that answers to problems represent possible business ideas. As it currently stands, using court services requires overcoming many hassles. And, like the hassles associated with buying books in stores, the Internet has made many of the steps associated with using court services unnecessary. For . . . [more]

If anyone doubts that Privacy by Design is not a fundamentally important principle, consider these two recent articles.

This Wired article describes a hack being detailed at the upcoming Defcon conference that can easily read and type keystrokes from wireless keyboards that are not Bluetooth. So you might want to consider replacing any non-Bluetooth wireless keyboards you have.

Security expert Bruce Schneier wrote this article entitled The Internet of Things Will Turn Large-Scale Hacks into Real World Disasters that explains the IoT risks. The fundamental problem is that not enough attention is being paid to security for IoT devices. This . . . [more]

It seems that dubbing major sporting events the “largest social media event ever” is even trendier than the social networking platforms themselves, and Rio 2016 is no exception. All hype aside, the Rio Olympics haven’t reinvented the wheel, and seem to impose similar restrictions as their predecessors.

The IOC describes appropriate uses and prohibitions in their Social and Digital Media Guidelines. All accredited individuals (athletes, coaches, and officials) who are not accredited as media are allowed to “share their experience at the Games through internet or any other type of social and digital media, provided that it . . . [more]

Anyone teaching technology to law students might be interested in this new special interest group curated by CALI’s Executive Director John Mayer: Teaching Technology to Law Students.

The site is developing a syllabi commons, a list of software, websites and resources, a collection of articles and videos about teaching tech in law schools, and a list of courses that will be taught this fall.

It has an American focus but looks like it will contain useful information for anyone teaching in this area. If you’re interested in learning more contact John Mayer (jmayer@cali.org) to join the Tech-For-Law-Students . . . [more]

Makerspaces (sometimes called hackerspaces) are community workspaces – generally in the tech and digital arena. Entrepreneurs might use them as workspaces and to collaborate with colleagues. Hobbyists might use their tools to make something. They often put on workshops – typically around tech and equipment – such as 3D printers. They perform a valuable service to foster learning, creativity, and entrepreneurship.

I learned how to use a Raspberry Pi yesterday at a workshop at UnLondon. (Harrison Pensa is a sponsor of UnLondon, and of their recent Explode conference.) The first project was to wire and code (in Python) an . . . [more]

The new “augmented reality” game Pokemon Go has in a few days more downloads than Tindr. Perhaps the age range of the players is wider.

In any event, to augment your reality, the makers (a spinoff from Google) want a LOT of personal information. TechCrunch has the story, or one version of it. Is the reason that the game is not yet available in Canada our privacy laws, notably PIPEDA, which requires (as well as informed consent) that the collection, use and disclosure of PII be reasonable? Can the game maker justify the extent of the information collected by . . . [more]

If you’re interested in learning more about the emerging legal tech market place then you might want to take a look at tech.law.stanford.edu. Robert Ambrogi wrote about this resource in May just before it was introduced at the CodeX FutureLaw Conference. He referred to it then as a “curated list of 450 companies changing the way legal is done.” Today tech.law.stanford.edu includes 558 companies in its directory, that’s over 100 new start ups in about a month and a half. An impressive growth rate …

The site organizes things under a handful of broad categories: Document Automation; Practice . . . [more]

[Necessary disclosure: My company Stem Legal has been working with Loom Analytics for several months now during their beta period. It’s a relationship I’m proud to showcase, but also one we are compensated for.]

Today is an exciting day for Loom Analytics. One of the country’s most interesting legal tech startups has officially closed its beta phase and has opened up registration to legal consumers. Less than 18 months after the Loom team first started working on the idea of a Canadian legal analytics tool, the company (whom you may recall from a Slaw Vendor Quiz earlier this year) . . . [more]

The following warning was issued by Lawyers Mutual of North Carolina. We haven’t had any reports of this in Ontario yet, but lawyers should always be alert to phishing scams that try to trick them into opening an attachment or clicking a link that could instal malware.

There is a new phishing scam targeting bar members across the country. The fraudulent email pretends to be a communication from the State Bar or Bar Association.

There are several versions of this scam. The most common are: “[state] Bar Complaint,” “[state] Bar Association Past Due Notice,” and “Lawyers and judges may now . . . [more]

In Ontario most court documents are filed in paper, with e-filing appearing mostly to be a distant dream. Similarly, court documents, other than originating documents, tend to be served by fax and not by email. Everyone loves that fax confirmation page despite the fact that emails can come with a read receipt.

So should we be allowed to communicate with the court through email? Should the court be encouraged to communicate with litigants via email?

Email is a blessing and a curse. It is easy to use. It is fast. It is convenient. But on the other hand, important emails . . . [more]

“But a breakthrough won’t be hard. We only need to look at things from a slightly different angle—which might happen in a hundred years or this afternoon.”—David Gelernter

One thing that came up during the “Computers and Legal Research” session that I reported on in my last post was the issue of copyright, specifically: Does AI create new, secondary IP rights? Or, will a machine be able to claim copyright? Very interesting questions. I’m not sure if this is what Nate Russell meant when he wrote at the end of his excellent post from last week . . . [more]