In this edition of the Priori Digest, a weekly look at what’s happening in law and technology, we look at whether the government is a “person” for the purposes of patents, the secret history of women in coding and the Learned Hands project which is trying to improve machine learning technology in the law by using gamification.. To get the digest straight to your inbox, sign up here. Enjoy!
Legal
- The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Tuesday in Return Mail v. US Postal Service. The Court will consider whether the government is a “person” that can petition to institute review proceedings under the America Invents Act (AIA)
- A new law in France is forcing French supermarkets to raise the price of staple foods
- The Learned Hands project is using gamification to encourage lawyers to spot possible legal issues in real people’s stories. This is helping to train machine learning software to become better at spotting legal issues
Tech
- This fascinating article details the secret history of women in coding. Long story, short: programming used to have a far better gender balance than it does today
- Russia is taking steps that would enable the government to unplug the country from the internet and fall back on its own, internal Russian network
- This comprehensive guide from WIRED on your personal data and who is using it is great. A particularly interesting section details the history of personal data collection
What in the weird
- A lawyer in Florida stages an elaborate fake trial in order to propose to his girlfriend
- Tudder, a tinder style app for cows, is helping farmers in England match up potential partners for their cattle
Legal & Tech Cartoons
By the numbers
- 143million: The amount (USD) that Americans lost in online scams in 2018
- 3.05: Screentime for 0-2 year olds more than doubled between 1997 and 2014, to 3.05 hours per day
- 77: The percentage of Americans over 18 who own a smartphone, up from 35 percent in 2011
