Corporate & Securities Law

What if the Law were more like Lego?

By John Wallbillich

I realized this morning that I’m almost as old as Lego (R); today is the 50th anniversary of the little brick that sticks.

I was weaned on the old-school Lego, and my sons spent many a lazy afternoon with slightly upgraded versions as well (although they preferred the basic stuff). Today’s varieties are almost unrecognizable from where things started.

As you’d expect, Lego’s lawyers are watchful over those who would copy these iconic products.

So I got to thinking: what would the law be like if it were more like Lego? Here’s my top seven:

1. All the pieces would fit together.

2. You could share parts of it with others and it would always work.

3. The best things resulted when you didn’t follow the directions.

4. If you spent hours with it, it wouldn’t cost any more.

5. It worked as well alone or in a group.

6. You could extend it easily in new and creative ways.

7. And you could just as easily tear it apart and start over.

I did learn early on that the big red ones just look like hard candy.

Even Google today is getting into the act:

(Update: Gizmodo has a cool Lego timeline.

Full post as published by The Wired GC on January 28, 2008 (boomark / email).