A method, an apparatus, and a computer program product for determining real-time legal rules for an action

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for a real-time legal rule management system (202) for defining legal data comprising at least two different legal information components (240, 250, 260) of legal data for at least two different receiver devices (201a, 201b, 201c) The at least two different legal information components (240, 250, 260) are received from a service provider (204) as a response to a request relating of an action and the request comprising action information. The method comprises determining at least one visibility component for the at least two different legal information components (240, 250, 260), receiving a legal data request comprising action information from an ERP system (203) of a receiver device (201a, 201b,10 201c) or a computing device comprising the ERP system (203), and transmitting at least one legal information component (240, 250, 260) to the receiver device (201a, 201b, 201c) from the real-time legal rule management system (202), if the at least one visibility component of the legal information component (240, 250, 260) corresponds to information about the receiver device (201a, 201b, 201c). The invention further relates to an apparatus (110), and a computer program product that performs the method.

Description

[0001] A method, an apparatus, and a computer program product for determining real-time legal rules for an action

[0002] Technical Field

[0003] The present application relates to defining legal data of an action for different users of a real-time legal rule management system. In particular, the present application relates to a method for defining different real-time legal data of an action for different users.

[0004] Background of the Invention

[0005] The economy is global, but businesses are still required to follow certain national and local laws and rules. This can make actions such as cross- border transactions quite complicated. There are different laws to be followed when doing business with companies located, for example, in U.S compared to the laws needed to be followed, when a company is located in a European country and different laws to be followed when doing business with other companies or customers and products or services. This is where working with an international business attorney who specializes in cross-border transactions may be useful, but expensive. Alternatively, legal information can be searched by going through large masses of legal data that contains both correct legal information and legal information that is not suitable for the transaction in question, which the person in need of the legal information has to go through, and evaluate which laws are suitable for the transaction. For example, when selling from Finland, for example, to a state of New York in the United States, it is necessary to browse Finnish legislation, European Union legislation, United States federal-level legislation and New York state legislation and based on them make an assessment as to which regulations of those laws are needed in her / his position in a company and are applied to the transaction in question. This requires a lot of time and knowledge from the person going through the legislations.

[0006] Summary of the Invention

[0007] Now there has been invented an improved method and technical equipment implementing the method. Various aspects of the invention include a method, an apparatus, and a computer readable medium comprising a computer program stored therein, which are characterized by what is stated in the independent claims. Various embodiments of the invention are disclosed in the dependent claims. These various embodiments result in a new and efficient method, apparatus and computer program product for determining and transmitting relevant legal data for different persons from all legal data relating to an action based on a person’s position in the action and / or in a company participating to the action. The relevant legal data may also depend on the type of the company requesting the legal data.

[0008] According to a first aspect, there is provided a method for a real-time legal rule management system for defining legal data comprising at least two different legal information components of legal data for at least two different receiver devices. The at least two different legal information components are received from a service provider as a response to request relating of an action and the request comprising action information. The method comprises determining at least one visibility component for the at least two different legal information components, receiving a legal data request comprising action information from an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system of a receiver device or a computing device comprising the ERP system, and transmitting at least one information component to the receiver device from the real-time legal rule management system, if the at least one visibility component of the information component corresponds to information of the receiver device.

[0009] According to an example, the visibility component is a role of user of the receiver device. According to an example, the visibility component is a location of the receiver device. According to an example, the visibility component is a type of the company requesting the legal information. According to an example, an information component comprises a document file comprising legal information relating to the action. According to an example, an information component is a website link to legal information relating to the action. According to an example, an information component is a JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) object comprising legal information relating to the action.

[0010] According to a second aspect, there is provided an apparatus that may be a server comprising at least one processor, memory including computer program code, the memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to perform the method according to the first aspect or any of its examples.

[0011] According to a third aspect, there is provided a computer program product embodied on a non-transitory computer readable medium, comprising computer program code configured to, when executed on at least one processor, cause an apparatus to perform the method according to the first aspect or any of its examples.

[0012] Description of the Drawings

[0013] In the following, various embodiments of the invention will be described in more detail with reference to the appended drawings, in which

[0014] Fig. 1a shows a real-time legal rule management system according to an embodiment;

[0015] Fig. 1 b shows an apparatus according to an embodiment;

[0016] Fig. 2 shows a block diagram of one possible and non-limiting real-time legal rule management system in which the example embodiments may be practiced; and

[0017] Fig. 3 shows a flowchart of a method according to an embodiment.

[0018] Description of Example Embodiments

[0019] The present application relates to a real-time legal rule management system configured to provide in response to a legal data request real-time legal rules and other legal information relating to an action, which provided legal data may be different for different receivers i.e. depend on, for example, a receiver’s position in the action and / or in a company participating to the action. The relevant legal data may also depend on the type of the company requesting the legal data. The term “action” covers in this context, for example, transactions, cross-border transactions, product development projects, offers or other actions, which have to follow certain national and local laws and rules. The real-time legal rule management system of the present invention makes it possible to search for legal information for actions on a rule-based basis. Legal information about a product or service is in a rule-based format so that a person using the real-time legal rule management system and needing the information receives exactly the right legal information for her / him as an answer for a specific action for which she or he was searching for legal information. Legal information transmitted for the person is selected from all the legal information relating to the action, for example, based her or his position i.e. role in the company or in the transaction and / or the type of the company requesting the legal data for the action.

[0020] In the real-time legal rule management system, for example, a unit of an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, for example, a production, distribution, inventory management, billing or accounting unit may or is arranged to request legal data by a legal data request of an action. In this context, the term ERP system also covers e-commerce platforms. The legal data request comprises action information, for example, information about a transaction. The needed action information required by the real-time legal rule management system is predefined. The real-time legal rule management system is configured to receive the required action information from the ERP system in a computer readable format. The action information may comprise a combination of the following: a place of origin (wherefrom a service or product is originated), a place of delivery (whereto the service or product is originated), a product or a service category (what, for example, Software as a Service (SaaS), a vacuum cleaner, a consultant service or any other service or product or system suitable to legally sold to the destination), and a customer quality (who, for example, a consumer or a company). Also other information may be needed and provided to the real-time legal rule management system in addition or instead of the above mentioned such as, for example, a time of delivery (when). As mentioned, the required action information is predetermined for the real-time legal rule management system and legal data relevant for the action is provided i.e. transmitted to a user device of the real-time legal rule management system.

[0021] After the real-time legal rule management system has received the action information, it passes i.e. transmits the legal information request comprising the received action information to a service provider, which service provider may in this context be a legal information provider such as, for example, Deloitte, Ernst & Young (EY), KPMG, and / or PwC. The service provider transmits to the real-time legal rule management system as a response to the legal information request all necessary legal information regarding the action of the legal information request to be stored in to the real-time legal rule management system in accordance with the requirements of the system. The real-time legal rule management system provides i.e. transmits all necessary and relevant legal information relating to the action of the legal data request to the user based on, for example, a role of user of a receiver device using the real-time legal rule management system and / or based on the company using the real-time legal rule management system. The company type may in this context be, for example, a business sector, such as, medical or telecom or any other business sector having different regulations or, for example, government or a private sector company etc.

[0022] More specifically, the real-time legal rule management system determines and transmits the relevant legal information of all the legal information relating to an action to the user device(s), for example, such that different parts i.e. components of the legal information received from the service provider and stored in the real-time legal rule management are transmitted and available for persons who have a different relationship with the action i.e. who have different legal information needs, for example, due to their role in the company or due to their role in the transaction, or due to a company requesting the legal data. A role may be, for example, a buyer, seller, an accountant, CEO of the selling company, a salesman etc. For example, a product manufacturer who needs very extensive information, for example, with the accuracy of individual parts of a product of the transaction, gets exactly the right sections of laws and other regulations of the legal information that apply to the individual parts of the product, while a trade finance (foreign trade financing) operator gets the right regulations of the legal information related to his own narrower needs for the same product of the transaction, and further the buyer of the product receives the regulations related to his / her own needs regarding the product of the transaction. In other words, the legal rule management system provides legal information for goods or services compliant with global regulations for each need and also enables information to be distributed to the right people in each organization, so that the right people get the right information for their own purposes i.e. relevant information relating to a transaction needed, for example, based on their role in the company. The received information as already above mentioned may also be dependent on a company using the real-time legal rule management system and the company type may be as above stated, for example, a business sector, such as, medical or telecom or any other business sector having different regulations or, for example, government or a private sector company etc. It should also be noted that in addition to relevant legal information each user may receive a so called high-level summary for each “section of law” that is relevant to the user in terms of the application / interpretation of the law they have received. Each high-level summary is made to correspond to the individual purpose of use, which is defined in the given “legal data request”.

[0023] Thus, the purpose of the invention is to facilitate international trade by automating the storage and provision of real-time legal information on a rulebased basis for each specific purpose of users.

[0024] In the following, several embodiments of the invention will be described in the context of a method using a real-time legal rule management system for delivering legal data relating to an action such as a transaction. It is to be noted, however, that the invention is not limited to this. In fact, the different embodiments have applications in any environment where a specific information management system is required for delivering relevant part of information data to users. The real-time legal rule management system is an example of a rule-based data management system or a rule-based content management system.

[0025] Figure 1a illustrates a real-time legal rule management system according to an embodiment. The system comprises at least a cloud server 100 for storing legal rules and / or other legal information received from a service provider as electronic objects. The server may also be a so called on-premises server or a combination of a cloud server and an on-premises server. The system further comprises three receiver devices 101 , 102, 103. The number of receiver devices may vary. For example, an ERP system of a receiver device 101 , 102, 103 may request legal information relating to an action, in this example, to a transaction by a legal data request comprising action information such as what, wherefrom, whereto, when, who and who. The legal rule management system receives the action information from an ERP system i.e. the ERP system transmits the action information to the legal rule management system, which then returns real-time legal rules and other information relating to the action defined by the action information to at least one receiver device 101 , 102, 103. The needed information of the action i.e. needed action information may be predefined for the legal rule management system. The legal data relating to the action is received from a service provider and stored in the cloud server 100. One or more receiver devices 101 , 102, 103 can receive the legal data defined according to the action information from the legal rule management system based on at least one visibility component determined for the at least two different legal information components of the legal data. The real-time legal rule management system may determine one or more visibility components for legal information components of the legal data. The visibility component may be, for example, a role of user of a receiver device configured to receive one or more legal components of the legal data from the real-time legal rule management system, or location of the receiver device, or owner company of the receiver device 101 , 102, 103, a company owning the receiver device 101 , 102, 103. The at least one visibility component may be defined / determined any desired way. For example, one or more legal information components may have at least one visibility component. A visibility component may be, for example, a role of user of a receiver device configured to use the real-time legal rule management system and then if it is determined that information of the receiver device comprises an information that the role of a user of a receiver device corresponds to at least one visibility component of at least one legal information component, then this at least one legal information component is transmitted to that device or viewed on a display of that device. For example, if a user of the first receiver device 101 is a CTO, different legal information components of the legal data is transmitted to the user of the first receiver device 101 than to a user of the second receiver device 102, who is, for example, a salesperson and to the user of the third receiver device 103, who is, for example, an accountant. For example, the user of the first receiver device 101 may receive all legal information components relating to the action, because determined visibility components (available for the CTO) of all components of the legal data corresponds to the information of the first receiver device 101 indicating that it is a receiver device of the CTO. Whereas, the user of the second receiver device 102 (the second receiver device 102 comprising information that it is a receiver device of a salesman) may get legal information components in the form of at least one web link relating to the legal information (i.e. web links are legal information components having a visibility component available for a salesman), and the user of the third receiver device 103 (the third receiver device 103 comprising information that it is a receiver device of an accountant) may get legal information components of the legal data relating to accounting (i.e. legal information components having a visibility component available for an accountant). The legal information component may also be a JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) object.

[0026] The legal data stored in the server 100 may be used through an application, wherein the application may be universal for all types of receiver devices, or there can be a receiver device specific content management application for each device, e.g. a mobile application, a web-based application, a desktop application, a web server etc. In addition, the cloud server 100 may have its own server application.

[0027] An apparatus according to an embodiment is illustrated in Figure 1 b in simplified manner. The apparatus 110 may represent a server device 100 of Figure 1a. The apparatus 110 comprises processing means, such as a processor 130 for processing data. The apparatus 110 further comprises memory means, such as a memory 120, storing computer program code 121 , applications and various electronic data. The apparatus 110 comprises controlling means, such as a control unit 140, for controlling functions in the apparatus 110. The control unit 140 may run a user interface software (GUI) to facilitate user control of at least some functions of the apparatus 110. The control unit 140 may also deliver a display command and a switch command to a display 141 to display visual information, e.g. a user interface and realtime legal information received from the server device 100. The control unit 140 may communicate with the processor 130 and can access the memory 120. Further, the apparatus 110 may comprise input means e.g. in a form of a keypad, touch green, and / or speech-to-text means 142. In addition, the apparatus 110 comprises various data transfer means, such as a communication block 150 having a transmitter and a receiver or a transceiver for connecting to a network and for sending and receiving information. The communication means can be adapted for telecommunications and / or wide- range and / or short range communication. The connection can be formed by using wired or wireless connection.

[0028] Figure 2 illustrates a block diagram of one possible and non-limiting a realtime legal rule management system in which the example embodiments may be practiced. A real-time legal rule management system 200 comprises a legal rule management server 202, three user devices 201a, 201 b, 201c, a service provider 204 and an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system 203. The ERP system 203 may be a part of one of the user devices 201a, 201b, 201c or an external computing device 203. The ERP system is configured to transmit a legal data request comprising action information of an action to the server 202 The server 202 receives the required action information from the ERP system in a computer readable format. The server 202 is configured to transmit a legal data request comprising the action information to a service provider 204 that as a response transmits legal data 240 relating to the transaction to the server 202, if the real-time legal rule management system has not previously received and stored legal data relating to the action information from the service provider 204. If the realtime legal rule management system has previously received legal data relating to the action information, it does not transmit the legal data request, but it has stored the legal information relating to the action information in its memory or cloud service and transmits the relevant legal data 240 of the action from there to a user after it has received a legal data request of an action from an ERP system. The server 202 determines or has determined at least one visibility component for legal information components of the legal data 240. The server 202 may, for example, determine that legal information component 240, which may be, for example a PDF listing of other document file, has a visibility component of role X of a user of a receiver device and then first user device 201a is configured to receive the information component 240 from the server 202 of the real-time legal rule management system 200, when it requests legal information relating to that transaction, because the at least one visibility component of the information component 240 corresponds to the type of user device 201a i.e. the visibility component and the role of user of the receiver device are both same type X. In this example, the second user device 201b is configured to receive the information component 250 from the server 202 of the real-time legal rule management system 200, when it requests legal information relating to that transaction, because the at least one visibility component of the information component 250 corresponds to the type of user device 201 b i.e. Y and the third user device 201c is configured to receive the information component 260 from the server 202, when it requests legal information relating to that transaction, because the at least one visibility component of the information component 260 corresponds to the type of user device 201 c i.e. Z. As a summary, examples of the action information of the legal data request relating to an action such as a transaction are shown already above, but they may be, for example at least the following: a place of origin (wherefrom a service or product is originated), a place of delivery (whereto the service or product is originated), a product or a service category (what, for example, Software as a Service (SaaS), a vacuum cleaner, a consultant service or any other service or product or system suitable to be legally sold to the destination), a customer quality (who, for example, a consumer or a company), and a time of delivery (date). The needed action information is received as natural language input in a computer readable format from the ERP system to the legal rule management server 202 that transmit the legal information request to the service provider 204, if needed, and as a response transmits legal data 240 relating to the transaction to the server 202. The legal data 230 comprises legal information components 240, 250, 260, for example, files such as a PDF comprising a summary of all legal data, an excel-file, a word file or any other type of files and for example web links to the legal rules relevant to the transaction. Further, it may comprise the above mentioned high-level summary.

[0029] The legal rule management server 202 defines one or more visibility components for each legal information components 240, 250, 260 on the basis of which it is determined whether a user of the receiver device 201a, 201b, 201c is allowed to receive a legal component or not.

[0030] Instead of the traditional approach of controlling access rights, the embodiments of the invention control receiving of legal information components on the basis of one or more visibility components defined for them. For example, a role information of user of a receiver device using the real-time legal rule management system is determined for the receiver devices and it is compared to at least one visibility component of a legal information component. If the information corresponds with the at least one visibility component, the legal information component may be received and displayed on the receiver device. Otherwise the legal information component is not displayed on it or transmitted to it.

[0031] Figure 3 shows a method 300 for a real-time legal rule management system storing legal data as legal information components, wherein the real-time legal rule management system is configured to define legal data comprising at least two different legal information components of legal data for at least two different receiver devices. The at least two different legal information components are received from a service provider as a response to legal information request relating of an action and the request comprising action information. In step 301 , the real-time legal rule management system determines at least one visibility component for the at least two different legal information components. In step 302, the real-time legal rule management system receives a legal data request comprising action information from Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, for example, from a receiver device or a computing device comprising the ERP system. In step 303, the real-time legal rule management system transmits at least one information component to the receiver device from the real-time legal rule management system, if the at least one visibility component of the information component corresponds to information of the receiver device.

[0032] The various embodiments of the invention can be implemented with the help of computer program code that resides in a memory and causes the relevant devices to carry out the invention. For example, a mobile device or a computer, that may be any computing device suitable to the purpose, may comprise circuitry and electronics for handling, receiving and transmitting data, computer program code in a memory, and a processor that, when running the computer program code, causes the mobile device to carry out the features of an embodiment. Yet further, a network device such as a server may comprise circuitry and electronics for handling, receiving and transmitting data, computer program code in a memory, and a processor that, when running the computer program code, causes the network device to carry out the features of an embodiment.

[0033] It is apparent that the present invention is not limited solely to the abovepresented embodiments, but it can be modified within the scope of the appended claims.

Claims

Claims:1 . A computer implemented method for a real-time legal rule management system (202) for defining legal data comprising at least two different legal information components (240, 250, 260) of legal data for at least two different receiver devices (201 a, 201 b, 201 c), wherein the at least two different legal information components (240, 250, 260) are received from a service provider (204) as a response to a request relating of an action and the request comprising action information, characterized in that the method comprises: determining at least one visibility component for the at least two different legal information components (240, 250, 260), wherein the visibility component is a role of a user of the receiver device (201 a, 201 b, 201 c), a role of a user in the action, a type of a company requesting the legal information, or a location of the receiver device (201 a, 201 b, 201 c); receiving a legal data request comprising action information from an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system (203) of a receiver device (201 a, 201 b, 201 c) or a computing device comprising the ERP system (203), and transmitting at least one legal information component (240, 250, 260) relating to the requested action information to the receiver device (201 a, 201 b, 201 c) from the real-time legal rule management system (202), if the at least one visibility component of the legal information component (240, 250, 260) corresponds to information about the receiver device (201 a, 201 b, 201 c), wherein the information about the receiver device (201 a, 201 b, 201 c) is a role of a user of the receiver device (201 a, 201 b, 201 c), a role of a user in the action, a type of a company requesting the legal information, or a location of the receiver device (201a, 201 b, 201c).

2. The computer implemented method according to claim 1 , wherein an information component (240, 250, 260) comprises a document file comprising legal information relating to the action.

3. The computer implemented method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein an information component (240, 250, 260) is a website link to legal information relating to the action.

4. The computer implemented method according to any of the preceding claims, wherein an information component (240, 250, 260) is a JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) object comprising legal information relating to the action.

5. An apparatus comprising at least one processor (130), and a memory (120) including computer program code (121 ), the memory (120) and the computer program code (121 ) are configured to, with the at least one processor (130), cause the apparatus (110) to perform the computer implemented method according to any of the claims 1 to 4.

6. A computer program product embodied on a non-transitory computer readable medium (120) comprising computer program code (121 ) is configured to, when executed on at least one processor (130), cause an apparatus (110) to perform the computer implemented method according to any of the claims 1 to 4.

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