Join the Symbian Team

Join the Symbian Team

Jobs at Symbian

Job Ref	730849
Job Title	Legal Counsel
Job Type	Full-time
Location	Helsinki, Finland
Description
About The Symbian Foundation In June 2008, mobile industry leaders came together in London to announce the future of mobile. For the previous 10 years, Symbian Software had developed SymbianOS into the world’s leading advanced mobile operating system. Over 250 individual smart-phone models were created with SymbianOS at their core, totalling more than 250 million individual handsets. Symbian Software had however, outgrown its strategy and a change of direction was required. The commercial software license was too expensive at large volumes and customers were becoming wary of having a commercial company with such a large share of their portfolio. Nokia acquired Symbian Software and a brand new entity, the Symbian Foundation, was set up to deliver this software in a new way. The SymbianOS and other software including third party user interfaces were contributed to the Symbian Foundation where it has been combined to form the Symbian Platform. This new, more complete, software is being developed and distributed as Open Source software, with the underlying source code made publicly available for free and technical development done via contributions from an ecosystem of companies rather than inside Symbian. In this way the Symbian Foundation can: Make the source code of the Symbian Platform freely available. Device creators, application developers and anyone else who wants to innovate in the mobile space can download the code and see how it works in all its elegant detail, and discover how they can best develop with it; Provide the Symbian Platform for use free of charge. There is no royalty charge for anyone accessing or using the platform; Reduce development costs for our community. The Symbian Platform is broken down into over 100 packages, each developed by one of our members. Sharing the platform development cost in this way leaves our members free to invest more deeply in the differentiating features that are crucial to them; Deliver compatibility. Devices from different manufacturers and in different geographical markets will be compatible if they are built on the Symbian Platform, meaning that application developers can access, and hence monetise in, Symbian’s huge global market; Deliver even better quality. Open Source opens development and testing to the widest possible audience. Anyone spotting a bug in the software can report it; if they are so inclined they can also look at the source code and propose a fix! The Symbian Foundation is a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee; it has no owners, only members. No-one exercises control, the future development of the platform is guided by councils of representatives from members across the industry. Department Overview The legal function of the Symbian Foundation is headed by the General Counsel and Company Secretary. It provides legal support to all other functions of the foundation, and handles corporate matters. Based on the mission of the foundation a focus for the legal team is on intellectual property rights regarding software and open source licensing. Role Synopsis Legal Counsel for the Symbian Foundation Key Tasks General legal support for all Symbian Foundation functions Special focus on support for technology management and technology delivery Compliance procedures (especially OSS in the Symbian Platform) Essential Skills & Experience Law degree Good knowledge of IP law including basic knowledge about US copyright and patent law Good knowledge of contracts law, including basic understanding of common law contract law Solid understanding of the most important open source licenses Fluent in English, including capability to draft contracts in English Basic understanding of software and IT technologies Good understanding of IT tools Desirable Skills and Experience Additional language skills Programming experience, deep knowledge of software technologies Previous experiences in open source compliance procedures Passion for technology Personal Skills Personal leadership External Networking Excellent Communication Skills Collaboration Team Player Change Oriented – happy to embrace change Rational, analytical, and pragmatic problem solving Energetic and enthusiastic Qualifications Law degree (Master or similar)