Harnessing AI: A guide for trade mark paralegals
As Artificial Intelligence undergoes a rapid transition from abstract concept to practical day-to-day applications, how can paralegals embrace its potential for empowering and enhancing their role?
Recently, Abion’s Azhar Sadique, Chair of CITMA’s AI task force, and Nehal Madhani, of Alt Legal, joined CITMA Paralegal Council representative Kane Ridley to explore how trade mark paralegals can take advantage of AI and the ethical and technology issues to be aware of as they do so.
The AI questions everyone is asking
The common questions trade mark paralegals are asking about the impact of AI:
- Will it replace my job?
- How can I adapt to AI instead of resisting it?
- What skills do I need to stay relevant?
- What are the biggest risks of AI in IP?
- How do I convince my firm to invest in AI?
These questions are common across knowledge-based industries today. Arguably, trade mark paralegals have an innate advantage when it comes to understanding how AI can be applied to IP, because they are already experts in the processes that keep the “engines” of law firms running. They have also seen key procedures evolve from labour-intensive, paper-based manual activities to the automated digital filing and docketing systems in place today.
This should provide encouragement for future AI use, says Nehal: “I don’t believe that we are in a world of [job] replacement, as much as we are in a world of supercharging what we can do in a given day.” He believes AI will help trade mark paralegals by: “elevating our work to the next level so that the tedious administrative and repetitive tasks are no longer part of our daily workflow.”
Nevertheless, in an industry that is not renowned for quickly adopting new technologies, how will AI overcome law’s natural resistance to change?
Clients are driving appetite for technology adoption
The answer, believes Azhar, lies in the fact that clients are increasingly demanding faster turnaround and greater accuracy across a higher workload – and they expect law firms to use technology to achieve these outcomes. The effective use of technology and AI is starting to appear as a decision criterion in RFPs, which is driving firms to explore how they can best meet these requirements.
Nehal adds that, historically, law firms haven’t had the stimulus to seek out best-in-class technology that exists in other competitive industries. Typically, a firm might adopt a new docketing system and leave it in place for a decade in a “if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it” mindset. Now, clients want to know that they are working with firms who are using the most up-to-date, efficient, and effective technology.
It’s not just client demand that is prompting law firms to get smarter about technology use. Nehal points to the US requirement to maintain a duty of competency, which now extends to technology. This means a lack of technology use or skill is no defence if malpractice or an avoidable error is committed that technology could have prevented.
Where AI excels: high volume data review, comparison and summary
A large proportion of legal work revolves around collating, analysing, and comparing high volumes of data in text format, which is where AI excels. It can summarise data and make baseline inferences from the information it is provided with. Generative tools can then help draft correspondence to send out based on docketing events, for example, or draft trade mark applications, or goods and services descriptions.
However, it’s important for trade mark paralegals to learn the limitations of different types of AI and understand at a basic level how they work, so they can spot errors, mitigate risks and explain how they have done so to clients.
Generative AI, in particular, is prone to hallucinations. Its outputs should always be supervised by an expert in the same way that an early career associate’s work is monitored by a more senior lawyer.
CITMA AI task force recommendations for responsible AI use
The CITMA AI task force has identified several areas that trade mark paralegals must consider when exploring AI adoption:
- Data confidentiality and protection: Build understanding of client data handling and sharing in the context of AI and ensure the business has policies to govern its use. Privileged data should never be entered into open-access tools such as ChatGPT or Microsoft Co-pilot and users should be alert to tools such as automated meeting summarisers. Unless properly configured, these may save transcripts in unprotected locations, or automatically send them to meeting participants without prior review.
- Bias and fairness: AI is only as good as the data on which it is trained, so it is important to understand the limitations of different datasets and the need to stay alert to the possibility that data may carry inherent bias.
- Transparency: While clients may be keen for law firms to use AI-powered solutions, it is essential that teams are fully transparent over when AI has been used, what it has been used for, and how client data has been protected throughout the process.
The AI opportunity for trade mark paralegals
While risks and concerns always form part of a conversation about AI adoption – especially in the legal sector – it is important to look at it through a lens of opportunity, says Azhar. A process-focused and admin-heavy industry like law is ripe for disruptive change from tools like AI and automation.
Azhar believes trade mark paralegals are poised to succeed due to their deep legal process knowledge and the value they can add when designing AI applications and automation workflows. They are also adept at managing technology as it is a core part of their role – typically more so than for attorneys.
By driving these higher value conversations, trade mark paralegals can move away from being pigeon-holed in basic roles to deliver real commercial impact and shape the future of legal services.
There is still a lot to learn about applying AI to trade mark work, but everyone is learning together. By investing time in research and getting hands on with AI, trade mark paralegals can position themselves to succeed. Azhar recommends:
- Exploring online coding courses through Coursera, LinkedIn Learning, YouTube and UDEMY.
- Trying different AI tools – not just ChatGPT – to get a sense of their capabilities and limitations.
- Joining peer learning groups such as CITMA’s AI Task Force
- Reading LegalTech blogs
Alt Legal also plans to run a paralegal session on AI, which interested parties can sign up for at [email protected]
Watch the webinar on-demand for more insight into the AI opportunity for trade mark paralegals and to see a trade mark based AI tool in action.