Conflict Analytics Lab Director Samuel Dahan has been named to a Stakeholders Advisory Board for the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) Boards of Appeal.
As part of this Board, Dahan will be recommending initiatives to help the EUIPO determine how it should refine and enhance its Alternative Dispute Resolution Service. Dahan will also take part in board meetings twice a year to advise the EUIPO and discuss dispute resolution practices.
“I am pleased to have this opportunity to guide discussions about how we resolve IP disputes in the future using technology,” he says. “We are always interested in opportunities to contribute to the future of conflict resolution and look forward to the productive developments this partnership will create.”
The invitation to participate in the Board came as a result of a Conflict Analytics Lab project for the EUIPO. Working with The Ingenuity Labs Research Institute at Queen’s, Dahan and Principal Investigator Xiaodan Zhu are creating a platform that would assist with trademark disputes.
Businesspeople looking to use the platform would be able to research how unique their potential new trademark, logo, or company description would be compared to what already exists in the business world.
Judges, meanwhile, could use the tool to help them reach conclusions more quickly in trademark disputes. This project is supported through the Canadian government’s New Frontiers in Research Fund.
“It is exciting to work in this newly developing area at the intersection of law and computer engineering, which has yet to be explored,” says Rohan Bhambhoria, a PhD candidate in computer engineering who is working on the project. “We’re breaking new ground in applying AI and natural language processing to legal texts.”
A prototype of the platform will be demonstrated at the EUIPO’s conference in May.
To learn about the EUIPO, visit the EU’s website.