Transparent Contractual Natural Language for Smart Contracts
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Traditional legal contracts are often ambiguous and difficult to understand, requiring both legal professionals and software engineers to create and verify machine-readable smart contracts, which is inefficient and increases the need for multiple experts.
Innovation Solution
A transparent, computer-processable contractual natural language is developed by annotating legal documents to create a structured database of categorized phrases, which can be mapped to a knowledge representation language, allowing for automatic interpretation and inference, reducing ambiguity and the need for specialized professionals.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traditional legalese-loaded documents are used to represent legal contracts, then the contracts can be understood by legal professionals, but the contracts become lengthy, ambiguous, and difficult to understand for non-legals
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary language layer between traditional legalese and machine-executable code. This contractual natural language serves as a mediator that preserves legal precision while being more accessible and less ambiguous than traditional legalese, ultimately enabling both human understanding and machine processing without requiring separate expertise in law and software engineering
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the contract creation process into distinct layers: traditional legalese, contractual natural language, and machine-executable code. This segmentation allows each layer to serve its specific function while maintaining connections to the others, resolving the contradiction by allowing legal professionals to work in their native language while machines execute precise code
2Extent of automation
If smart contracts are created using both natural language contracts and software programs, then machine readability is achieved, but the complexity increases and requires two sets of professionals (lawyers and software engineers)
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the functions of natural language contract drafting and software program creation into a single unified system. The contractual natural language is designed to be both human-readable and machine-processable, eliminating the need for separate natural language contracts and software programs, thereby reducing system complexity while maintaining machine readability
Solution Approach 2:
The contractual natural language serves multiple functions simultaneously: it is readable by humans (like natural language), processable by machines (like code), and capable of expressing legal concepts (like legalese). This multi-functionality eliminates the need for multiple separate systems and professionals, resolving the contradiction between automation and complexity
3Adaptability or versatility
If traditional contracts are customized from historical templates over time, then adaptability to different transactions is achieved, but the terms become disparate, contradictory, or ambiguous due to legacy verbiage
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the fundamental parameters of contract language from traditional legalese to contractual natural language with defined semantics. This parameter change maintains adaptability to different transactions while ensuring term consistency, as the new language framework provides standardized meanings that prevent the accumulation of disparate and contradictory legacy verbiage
Data Source
AI summary
System and methods of creating and using a transparent, computer processable contractual natural language are disclosed in which a set of legal contracts are annotated to obtain a structured contractual database. A set of categorized contractual phrases are assembled from the structured contractual database. A transparent knowledge representation language is defined having a set of syntax rules, a set of semantic rules and a set of inference rules. A transparent, computer-processable contractual natural language is the subset of contractual phrases that map to the transparent knowledge representation language. A user writes computer-processable legal documents comprised of phrases contained in the transparent, computer-processable contractual natural language.