China is today one of the foremost countries in the world when it comes to use of legal technology, and this is reflected in a rising number of legaltech patents.
According to Thomson Reuters, the number of patents related to legal technology filed globally has risen more than fourfold over the past five years, from 202 in 2013 to 933 last year. More than half — 51 per cent — were filed in China last year, while 23 per cent were filed in the US and 11 per cent in South Korea.
"The rise in China's legaltech patent applications is closely related to the industry development, a concrete manifestation and a necessary stage for the growth and prosperity of China's legaltech." says Morris Tu, CEO of Legal Miner, which provides business risk management solution via SaaS and consulting services.
Wei Xiao, Managing Director of JunHe LLP points out that "the main driver is the surging demand for legal services. Given that legal services can be expensive, many people are turning to using legaltech as it offers more affordable options. Additionally the Chinese public is becoming more aware of technology and readily embracing innovation, and this people are taking to it like never before."
According to the Financial Times, another reason why China is emerging as a leader in the use of legal technology is that it is seeking to modernize its justice system to address the country's shortage of skilled and experienced lawyers. The report also points out that western law firms and other legal service providers tend to concentrate on how to automate their operations in the name of efficiency and cost savings, not least because their biggest clients-corporate legal departments are insisting on lower bills. By contrast, Chinese innovators are more focused on ordinary citizens.
In fact, the driving force behind China leading the global legaltech landscape goes far beyond that, says Tu. "More and more companies seek to reduce the cost of hiring outside counsel while increasing the budget for in-house legal department to improve the efficiency and quality of the work they do. This demand is consistent with and further facilitates the development of the legaltech industry. In addition, various Chinese government agencies are also looking to implement a smart judicial system, another impetus for the legaltech growth."
"Open access to data and information has made possible the rapid growth in legaltech. China's court judgments have been published online since 2013. Other key measures such as open trials, open judicial auctions and open list of dishonest persons have all contributed to the legaltech development. On the other hand, the legal revolution comes from within. A lot of inventions that we see today, such as automated due diligence and AI in contract review, all come from legal practitioners' need to maximize efficiency and reduce manual work via AI empowerment." He adds.
And it's not just lawyers who are interested in legaltech. "Industries that a growing need for legal services, including real estate, finance, e-commerce, etc. are also embracing legaltech. As a result we are seeing any increase in applications for technologies related to electronic contracts," says Zhen Mei, Co-Founding Partner and Chief Legal Officer of Fadada, a provider of online electronic contracts.
"Change is already here, a transition from quantity to quality. It is obvious that many industries are being fundamentally changed by technology, and the legal industry is no exception, but the change is definitely positive for the industry as a whole," adds Xiao.
STEADY EVOLUTION
The types of patent applications have evolved over the years, says Tu. Earlier, the technologies in vogue were data crawlers, analyses of judicial rulings and retrieval of legal information. Now, the focus is more on artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Xiao of JunHe elaborates on the impact of legal tech from two sides. First, there is the impact on the delivery of legal services. Big data and AI enable certain legal services to get standardized or be packaged as products. In the areas where standardization is impossible, technology is still playing a key role in maximizing efficiency. Second, there is the impact on the model for providing legal services. Technology will be more disruptive to the current model, which involves people-to-people service with law firms as the organizational unit, by making changes to both management of the client relationship as well as the firm's internal structure.
However, there are challenges when it comes to proliferation of the new technologies. Although China claims more legaltech patents than any country, the proportion of legaltech patents among all other patents in China is still very small. "In 2018, the number of patent applications for inventions in China was 1.542 million, apart from the large numbers for utility model patents and design patents," says Xiao. "Patents must comply with the requirements of national law. From this perspective, there's no difference in terms of difficulty levels."
Again, there is still room for growth in terms of market recognition. "Take electronic contracts as an example," says Mei. "China's e-signature law came into effect in 2005 and it is recognized by many courts and arbitration centers, but companies are reticent about using yet."
However, Mei adds that things have been looking up since 2015, when the government began promoting the use of e-contracts. "In 2018, the use of e-certificates and e-signatures was recognized by governments in major cities in China, the Supreme People's Court also endorsed technologies such as e-signature, trusted timestamping, hash validation, and blockchain. On Jan. 1, 2019, China's new e-commerce law took effect, clearly stipulating the use of e-contracts," She says.
Tu of Legal Miner says that legaltech not only expands the scope of legal services for legal practitioners, but also enhances their capabilities by means of machine empowerment in this ultra-competitive market. "The future legal service would be a combination of 'machine and lawyers' that boasts of the advantages of both efficiency and experiences," he notes.
"China has far fewer lawyers per capita than in the West, which means a huge potential for legaltech developments in China. Legaltech offers an immense opportunity for the transformation and upgrading of how traditional legal services are provided, and it is expanding the legal services' breadth and depth in three major ways: By upgrading the industry with minimum cost; by revolutionizing the legal services landscape; and providing a more personalized service to clients," said Mei of Fadada.
领跑法律科技
中国正崛起为法律科技运用方面的领跑者，中国法律科技专利申请量领跑全球。
据汤森路透最新数据显示，过去五年，全球申请的法律科技相关专利数量增加了四倍多，从2013年的202项增加至去年的933项：其中超过半数（51%）是由中国提交的，美国提交了23%，韩国提交了11%。
“中国法律科技的专利申请增长和整个行业的发展与成长息息相关，这一现象是中国法律科技行业繁荣发展的具体表现，也是法律科技发展的必经阶段，”理脉首席执行官涂能谋律师谈到。
君合律师事务所主任肖微律师指出，“最主要的驱动力是法律服务需求的增长，其次是基于中国目前经济的三个特点：第一，人力成本快速提升以及人口结构的变化大大促进了对科技与创新的需求；第二，中国在科创方面有非常多的积累与成就，这些成功让熟悉法律行业的人士看到了科技对法律这样一个垂直行业的价值；第三，创新在市场需求以及政策推动下已变成了重要关注点、改变了大家的思维方式。”
《金融时报》近期在一篇文章中指出，中国正崛起为法律科技运用方面的领跑者，因为中国正在寻求司法体制的现代化，从而解决本国缺乏熟练且经验丰富律师的问题。该文章还指出，西方律所及其他法律服务提供商倾向于以提高效率和降低成本的名义，专注于如何实现业务自动化，并非着眼于满足其大客户即企业法务部缩减预算的需要，与之相反，中国法律科技的创新更多是服务普通民众。
事实上，中国领跑全球法律科技的背后动因，绝不仅限于此。据涂能谋律师介绍，“据一些法律媒体的调研，大量企业希望削减聘用外部律师的开销，同时在内部法务部门增加预算，提高内部法律工作的效率和质量，这是促进法律科技行业发展的需求。此外，随着互联网和智能化的发展，公检法等政府部门也有智慧司法相关的建设需求，这也为法律科技的发展提供了动力。”
“数据和信息的开放也为法律科技的发展提供了可能。2013年，中国裁判文书数据全面上网，同时庭审公开、司法拍卖公开、失信信息公开等政府信息公开举措为法律科技提供了源头活水；另一方面，律师等法律服务行业从业者在工作中也挖掘出了很多信息化、智能化的需求，比如智慧办公、智能尽调、合同审查机器人等发明创造，都是基于律师的实际业务场景发展而来的。” 涂能谋律师告诉ALB。
而关注法律科技的群体也不局限在法律业。“随着法律科技在全球范围内的兴起，这一概念正逐步在房地产、金融、电子商务等法律服务需求高频的领域得到不同程度的应用。放眼国内，电子合同可以说是法律科技领域最典型、最具代表性的应用之一。”法大大联合创始人兼首席法务官梅臻律师谈到。
“变化已经在发生，当然还处于一个从量变到质变的转换过程里。我们可以看到技术已经从根本上改变了很多行业，对于法律行业来说变化也是不可避免的，而且对于行业整体上来说肯定是正面积极的。”肖微律师补充道。
稳步发展
就法律科技公司通常申请的专利类别来看，涂能谋律师告诉ALB，“前几年，国内外法律科技公司专利申请的主要领域集中在数据爬虫、法官的裁判倾向分析，法律信息／知识检索和律师、法务和公检法系统的信息化建设等，主要集中在对文本信息数据化的处理和系统化的建设等方面。最近一到两年，随着人工智能技术在全世界互联网行业取得突破进展，法律科技行业的专利申请开始向人工智能、机器学习等方面侧重，很多大力推进人工智能发展的公司都申请了有关知识图谱、机器学习模型等类型的专利。”
肖微律师进而从两个维度阐释了法律科技对法律服务业的影响：首先是对于法律服务的影响。大数据技术与人工智能将使得一些法律服务的标准化与产品化成为可能，即使在不能标准化的法律服务方面，技术也将提升专业人士的效率与工作质量，从而供需双方都能获益；其次是对于法律服务业务模式的影响。目前的法律服务更多还是基于人与人的互动模式，这决定着法律从业人员主要还是以律所为组织单位来提供服务，而技术将会对这样一个法律服务供给侧从外部客户关系以及内部组织两方面带来变化。
尽管如此，法律科技并未形成燎原之势。中国虽然在法律科技专利申请量上领先于其他国家，但在中国所有专利申请中，法律科技专利所占的比例还是非常小的，“2018年，我国仅发明专利的申请量就达到154.2万件，另外还有非常多的实用新型专利申请以及外观设计专利申请，”而被问及法律科技专利申请与其他专利申请在难易度上是否存在不同？肖微律师继续说道，“专利必须符合国家法律的要求，从这个角度讲，法律科技专利的申请没有难易度之分，因为适用的法律标准是一样的。”
目前，法律科技的市场认知度仍有待提升。“以电子合同为例，中国《电子签名法》在2005年就已正式实施，其法律效力虽已在许多法院审判、仲裁案件中被认可，但国内部分企业对于电子合同的应用仍然抱有疑问。” 梅臻律师指出。
“该情况直至2015年才得到明显改善，同时政策层面也开始给电子合同的落地使用加温：2018年，北上广等多地政府陆续对电子政务平台的电子证照、电子签名使用明确表示支持，最高法也对电子签名、可信时间戳、哈希值校验、区块链等技术表示认可；今年开始施行的《中华人民共和国电子商务法》，同样对电子合同的使用做出了明确规定。”梅臻律师补充道。
涂能谋律师指出，“法律科技不仅为法律行业从业者拓展了法律服务这块蛋糕的范围，也通过机器赋能的方式增强了律师切分蛋糕的能力，相信会对现有的法律服务业形成很好的促进和互补，”涂能谋律师接下来预测，“未来，相信在法律科技的影响下，法律服务将会向‘机+人’的方向发展，既有机器的自动化效率，又具备专家的服务经验和职业素养，提供更加完备、高效的高水平服务。”
“中国的人均律师数量远远低于西方，这从另一个侧面说明了中国的法律科技势能有着巨大的潜力和释放空间。法律科技为传统法律服务的转型与升级提供了一次巨大的机会，通过法律科技这一全新业务模式，用最低的成本实现法律服务行业的升级，推动法律服务发生革命性的变革，提供更加个性化的服务，将大大拓展法律服务的广度、深度，” 梅臻律师最后谈道。
To contact the editorial team, please email ALBEditor@thomsonreuters.com.