A quick update on the the 2015 Legal Tech Open Innovation Challenge—Docket Analystics, which is currently in progress. A joint effort of CodeX and Thomson Reuters, it’s an “open call” to develop technology that can advance the legal system, and it comes with three prizes: a $20,000 top prize, $15,000 (2nd place) and $10,000 (3rd place) for granting the “seeker” a non-exclusive license to use the winning technologies. In addition, there will be four honorable mention awards. (Check out earlier blog post here, or scroll down a bit.).

The goal is to develop new applications that “can create or identify useful metrics, trends, patterns, projections and predictions to support the practice and business of law,” noted TR’s Scott Augustin in “Legal Current.”

Entries will be judged on their ability to innovate Big Data analytics to address practical or professional needs of the legal marketplace. Submissions will be evaluated for novel combination, integration and application of data analysis, the organizers said.

Thomson Reuters engaged InnoCentive to help with the challenge, which includes (but is not limited to) our CodeX community and the InnoCentive’s solver network. Competitors are provided access to several years of federal court dockets content from WestlawNext and Thomson Reuters Perm ID, the organizers explained. That data can combined with outside data sources to develop applications that can create or identify useful metrics, trends, patterns, projections and predictions to support the practice and business of law. (More information about the challenge can be found here.)

So far, the competition has attracted 360 teams worldwide, said CodeX Executive Director Roland Vogl.  It’s not too late to jump in: submissions are due by Sept. 15 (2015). The judges will evaluate the offerings from Sept. 16th to Oct. 2.

InnoCentive will pre-screen submissions based on pre-established criteria—so judges will be reviewing only the most relevant submissions, the organizers said.  Each judge is expected to review approximately five to eight  submissions (two judges per submission). Because judging submissions will require a combination of technical and business strategy expertise,  judges are encouraged to allow key people from their organizations to review and provide feedback on the applications to inform decisions, they said.

Monica Bay is a Fellow at CodeX and a member of the California bar. @MonicaBay Email: mbay@stanford.edu.