General Counsel

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The General Counsel is the primary person responsible for handling legal issues faced by the Wikimedia Foundation. However, he did not personally deal with all legal matters. The Foundation continued to rely on volunteer (pro bono) assistance from other attorneys, and the General Counsel organized and coordinated their efforts. Also, each Wikimedia project was expected to continue monitoring its own content to deal with situations that might give rise to legal liability.

As of August 2007, the general counsel of WMF is Mike Godwin. More information may be found here.

Contents 1 Tasks 2 Former General Counsels 2.1 Brad Patrick

[edit] Tasks

The job description of the role of General Counsel approved by the Board is:

Position summary of in-house legal counsel

The In-House Counsel will be responsible for coordinating and assisting in the management of the Foundation’s legal affairs including various contracts, intellectual property issues, non-profit registration requirements, conducting research, drafting legal documents and assisting in negotiations as directed. Serves as liaison with the Foundation’s outside legal counsel.

Responsibilities

1. Monitors and assists in the management of Foundation legal affairs with assistance from Outside Counsel as needed.
   1. Serves as “clearing house” for Foundation legal issues assisting in the determination of which matters are to be handled internally and those which need to be turned over to outside counsel.
   2. Monitors progress of work being done by outside counsel including review of bills.
   3. Communicates legal issues with internal staff and outside counsel.
   4. Manages registration and licensing required by various states for the purposes of soliciting charitable donations.
   5. Conducts legal research as needed and provides written analysis of results.
2. Handles legal matters for Foundation officers and employees.
   1. Anticipate and be proactive regarding legal issues in the Foundation operations.
   2. Personally handles general legal issues and contracts.
   3. Addresses issues within attorney’s experience and expertise, e.g. intellectual property protection and exploitation.
   4. Coordinates and supervises services of outside counsel for all litigation as well as matters requiring expertise, e.g. tax, corporate, state registrations and other issues.
3. Protects Foundation’s intellectual property interests, particularly Foundation trademark and copyright portfolio.
   1. Oversees management of IP portfolio.
   2. Coordinates IP registrations with outside legal counsel.
   3. Protects Foundation IP by monitoring use, drafting Cease and Desist letters and monitoring response.
   4. Drafts IP license agreements, including use on merchandise.
   5. Coordinates response to infringement claims made against Foundation (trademark and copyright).
   6. Researches IP issues, including Foundation and third party use.
   7. Reviews International Trademark Search Reports.
   8. Works with community staff on various IP issues.
4. Manages the Foundation’s various licensing and domain issues.
   1. Assists in negotiation of agreements between Foundation and licensees and developers.

Duties include but may not be limited to the above.

[edit] Former General Counsels

[edit] Brad Patrick

On 12 June 2006, the Wikimedia Foundation announced the hiring of Brad Patrick as interim Executive Director and General Counsel, the latter position on a permanent basis (official press release). He resigned as Executive Director in February 2007 and as General Counsel in March 2007.

Brad had been acting as the Wikimedia Foundation's outside legal counsel since 2005, and had made a number of edits to the English Wikipedia.