Tips on setting up a worldwide legal office using a wiki.

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he Times They Are a- to a process, the more complicated it have done this job right when people
“T Changin’,” or so wrote
Bob Dylan. I am not
sure he was writing
about in-house legal counsel then,
but the words ring true for us today.
becomes, and the less likely the process
will be successful.
As for what to post on a wiki, the
sky is the limit. Our legal group is a
particularly good looking group (just
start quoting your own procedures
back to you. One area I found particu-
larly useful is posting our copyright
registration procedures. The overall
policy is posted along with the reason-
The biggest changes are brought by in case someone from the legal group ing behind the policy. Having the
technologies, one of which I have used reads this), so we started out with policy and procedures posted makes
successfully over the past three-plus photos of ourselves and then listed it all the more efficient to collect the
years: the wiki. our areas of responsibility — a list necessary pages of source code from
of who to approach extremely busy engineers.
when you need legal Another benefit of a well-planned
A Worldwide Wiki support. Each section
is assigned to a dif-
wiki is that you have a ready-made
presentation for new employee orien-
BY FRANK FLETCHER ferent person within tation. All you have to do is boot up
the legal group, and your laptop, go to the wiki and walk
where appropriate, through the sections of interest. If a
I have often thought about how a business partner is listed. The wiki situation arises such that you need to
I could establish a successful global covers basics such as template agree- create a new internal presentation or
legal department for a company with ments and attendant rules of use, training module, you can post it on
offices in Germany, the United States directions on how to work effectively the wiki. This also applies to an email
and Asia — a company that never with legal, and when it is necessary to that summarizes policy. After you draft
sleeps. I wanted to develop a system get finance or the technical approvals the email, you can cut and paste into a
that was user-friendly and would beforehand. memo template, and then post on the
encourage involvement. After some The wiki is a good place to post in- wiki. No reason to reinvent the wheel,
consultations and discussions, I settled formation on the company’s intellectu- or in this situation invent the wheel and
on developing an information source al properties and what needs to occur then lose the wheel. Individuals who
through a wiki. For those who are only to protect the company’s rights. We want to grow have a resource they can
partly familiar with the term, a wiki is listed our company trademarks and access. As long as the rules of use are
software that allows you to make a site instructions on how to use the marks, followed, the employees can go forward
of internally linked webpages that can training materials and procedures for and in such a way that they are empow-
be easily edited. The best example is how to involve legal in the trademark ered. Or at least they have someone to
Wikipedia. selection process. The same works in blame if they follow the rules and get in
A wiki is not as wide open as some the patent area as you can post issued trouble.
would think. The administrator can set patents and patent applications in A wiki isn’t the solution for every
the rules and be informed of changes. process, training materials and blank company but it makes for a user-
For example, access can be limited to invention disclosures. Another good friendly, collaborative, cost effective
certain groups such as senior manage- topic for a wiki is your company’s solution for some companies. With
ment. A wiki is also relatively easy to export compliance rules and prod- a bit of daring, it is a process that a
use. The tutorial we developed is only uct classifications. If you have open legal group can set up and own.
one page. A primary reason I selected source and/or new product release ap-
the wiki was because it allows contri- proval processes, this is a great place Have a comment on this article? Visit
butions to be made directly by users to post these materials. ACC’s blog at www.inhouseaccess.com/
without involvement of IT. Not that Such processes can be complex and articles/acc-docket.
I have anything against IT (in case it can be difficult to get internal buy
someone from our IT department ever in. A set of clear procedures helps to
reads this), but the more steps you add simplify the processes. You know you
FRANK FLETCHER is general counsel for Nero AG headquartered in Karlsbad, Germany with subsidiaries in Hangzhou,
China; Yokohama, Japan; and Glendale, California, where he usually can be found. Fletcher can be contacted at
ffletcher@nero.com.
ACC Docket 16 April 2011