04.2 · Compliance, intellectual property and contracts.
Legal
In a group that operates across several countries, manufactures devices that collect data and publishes sector analysis, the legal department is not a support service: it gets involved before something is built, not after.
A quién sirve
The whole group
And unevenly, which is worth saying: the houses that manufacture and those that deal with outside clients consume most of its work.
What it does
Intellectual property
Registering and defending the group's brands in the automotive sector. It is what stops a name that has become known from ending up usable by anyone.
Contracts
Drafting and negotiating what the group signs with clients, suppliers and partners. Including what almost nobody plans for: what happens when something goes wrong.
Data protection
Regulatory compliance and information security. With a product that measures behaviour, this is not paperwork: it decides what can be built.
And what comes afterwards
Representation and dispute resolution. It is the least visible part and the one that measures whether everything before it was done properly.
Because the decisions this department accompanies cannot be undone cheaply. What is collected from a user has to have been stated before collecting it; a name has to be usable before it goes out into the world. Both checks cost little at the start of a project and a great deal once it is running.
Why it gets involved before, not after
The expensive thing is not failing to register a trademark: it is not being able to use the name. Before publishing a new brand we check it is free, and that check comes before the design, not after.