6 June 2016

De Brauw announces three finalists of its Legal Innovation Challenge

Brandopticon, Appjection and LexIQ are the three finalists of the De Brauw Legal Innovation Challenge. This is the first time that De Brauw has organised the De Brauw Legal Innovation Challenge: a first in the world of law and a first for De Brauw.
Geert Potjewijd, managing partner of De Brauw: "Many participants submitted innovative and interesting ideas. In March, the jury selected three teams for the finals. Since then, the teams have been developing their ideas and finalising business plans together with coaches selected by De Brauw. On 9 June, the teams will be presenting the product of their hard work to the audience and the jury. It is the teams' last chance to convince them of their plan’s potential. The audience will be able to vote, but ultimately it is up to the jury to select the very first De BLIC winning team". The jury consists of Geert Potjewijd (managing partner of De Brauw), Michael van den Berg (Sales Manager Mid Market Benelux at IBM Netherlands) and Douwe Groenevelt (Legal Director at ASML). About the finalists Brandopticon's idea is to develop a toolkit that enables the user to automatically detect and monitor intellectual property infringements online. Founders Sophie ten Bosch and Elgar Weijtmans: "Text-based search is something people use every day. Image-based search, however, is a bit more difficult. Our tool automatically searches selected platforms, making it easier for the user to detect and monitor intellectual property infringements online". Appjection's innovators: "Our idea is for our users to be able to appeal against fines and decisions simply by using their smartphone via our app and WhatsApp. Users will be able to submit all relevant information via their smartphones. This information will then be automatically formatted and sent to the relevant authorities". Appjection's revenue model is based on a no-cure, no-pay basis, which means that if the appeal is not successful or the amount is not lowered, users will not have to pay at all. "If we do succeed, users will pay a percentage of the money saved", according to founders Doortje van Bokkem, Matthijs Lagas and Max Heck. LexIQ is the third finalist. The team currently consists of three core members. Raphael Spaans, Reinoud Baker and Michael van der Cammen. According to the founders, LexIQ is the next generation go-to search engine for legal data. Major features they will administer include:
  • Additional information to case law summaries of, for example, facts and factors that were taken into consideration
  • Visual display of search results
  • Suggestions to related case law based on collective search behaviour
  • Legal statistics on search results
Click here for more information about De BLIC, the finalists and about the finals on 9 June.