Midis du Centre: “Legally Blind? Findings on Transparency and Explainability through a Study of AI-Powered Trademark Search Engines”
Centre de droit privé
Type d’event
Conférence
Location
Campus Usquare, Fab Lab ULB, Bâtiment F, 1er étage, Salle multimédia
Date
27/03/2024
Heure
de 12h à 14h
Julien Cabay & Thomas Vandamme: “Legally Blind? Findings on Transparency and Explainability through a Study of AI-Powered Trademark Search Engines” (La présentation sera réalisée en français)
The question whether two objects are similar in a relevant manner is core to intellectual property law (IP). The answer is extremely complex and entirely left to IP Offices and judges, respectively in the frame of administrative and judicial proceedings, without any proper analytic tools. Yet, algorithmic decision systems (ADS) are currently being developed and used by private companies for the purposes of IP enforcement (monitoring infringing goods online, filtering out content) and registration by IP Offices, outside of public scrutiny.
In the framework of our research project IPSAM (Intellectual Property Similarities Assessment Model), we subjected several publicly available trademark search engines to close scrutiny.
In the course of our study, we encountered several methodological and practical difficulties that in turn, evidenced normative issues related to transparency and explainability. Should we compute and process possibly inconsistent case law? How can we identify legal biases in technical solutions? Is it possible to study technologies despite trade secret protection? What methodology can we develop for evidencing overfitting? Should we limit transparency to AI qualify as ‘high-risk’?
And the critical question: are we legally blind?
