Striving to codify its best practices for “prep and prosc,” willing to take time to train lawyers and scrutinize processes, setting the stage for offshoring some of its work, Cisco’s patent group maintains what must be a sophisticated and complete guideline. At 70 pages, this form of knowledge management is…
“The average computer user types at 33 words per minute, 19 words per minute for composition tasks. The average person speaks at a rate of 150 words per minute for standard conversation, although trained dictators can speak significantly faster.” We learn this from Met. Corp. Counsel, Vol. 17, April 2009…
More often than any other function, the corporate legal department manages contracts once they are executed. The following findings that elaborate on that statement come from Exari, which compiled data from more than 100 corporate respondents at the ACC Annual Meeting in 2008 and LegalTech New York in February 2009.…
A report by Exari, “Corporate Counsel Contracts Survey Report,”compiles data from more than 100 corporate respondents at the ACC Annual Meeting and LegalTech New York in February 2009. Three quarters of the respondents were from Fortune 1000 law departments. One of the findings has to do with the proportion of…
To paraphrase a recent article, a general counsel should not ask, “How can I get people to collaborate more?” The general counsel should ask, “Will collaboration on this project create or destroy value?” The article, in the Harv. Bus. Rev., Vol. 86, April 2009 at 84, makes the intuitive point…
A general counsel on a recent panel said that he wants an answer to this question from his team every quarter. He does not want to hear about matters that ended; he wants to hear about low-value activities that are no longer done by the law department, such as quasi-legal…
Publicly-traded companies must collect from each of their board members and “named executive officers” (the top five by compensation as well as the CEO and CFO) a signed certificate regarding their possible conflicts of interest. The form is based on SEC rules and regulations but it may need to be…
A friend sent me some ideas Steve Prokesch posted on April 21, 2008 for the Harvard Business Review site. I have slightly edited them. Compare your calendar with your priorities. Label the purpose of every regular or recurring activity on your quarterly calendar and highlight those activities that further your…
At first glance, it seems fair to reward inventors who are granted a patent a share of the later income from that patent. But at a recent conference, the panelists rejected that incentive. The administrative difficulties of tracking and apportioning income plague such an incentive. Additionally, the arrangement practically invites…
Work has become more complicated for patent lawyers as organizations have combined to create ways to buy and sell patents. What a recent conference presentation referred to as the “secondary market” can be thought of as “offensive buyers,” “defensive buyers,” and “brokers.” The offensive buyers of patents include Intellectual Ventures,…