What is the Widget?

The Widget is a web-based contract drafting system developed and managed by Wiggin, one of the leading UK media firms.  The Widget has been designed specifically for companies in the media sectors and provides a cost-effective way for these companies to generate in-house the contracts that they use on a regular basis.

We identified a number of media industry sectors where in our experience certain fairly standard form contracts are regularly used (for example, the recorded music sector, and the music publishing sector).  For each of those sectors we have prepared a set of standard contract templates.  We maintain these templates on a regular basis to ensure they are up to date in terms of both legal and commercial developments.

We currently provide sets of the standard contracts typically used by record labels, music publishers and periodical publishers.  Other industry contract sets will be added on a regular basis - watch this site for updates.  You can also use your own contracts on The Widget if you prefer - our bespoke Widget service is designed to let you upload and use your own contract templates on the Widget and work on contract wizards specially designed for you.

The Widget gives you the certainty of knowing your contract is properly drafted, and we can be on hand with advice if needed.

How does it work?

When you want to draft a contract, you pick the contract you want from the set of contract templates in your chosen sector, and what we call a "wizard" appears on screen, which is a form that takes you through the preparation of the contract in plain English.  You work through the wizard, filling in the necessary information where prompted (for example the contracting parties' names and addresses, and the key commercial terms) and you make the appropriate choices from clause options where prompted.  You don't have to understand the law, but you do need to understand your business!

When you have completed the contract building process, the software prepares your contract using the terms you have chosen and the information you have entered, and the finished draft is made available to you for download as a Word document for use in the normal way.

You can revisit your draft any time using the wizard to amend it, or to re-create it.

When the contract is agreed and signed, you can if you like use the Widget as a contract storage facility by uploading a scanned PDF version of the signed document to your account.  You can search and access your stored contracts at any time during your subscription.

We have made sure that the Widget is a secure service, so that no outside party will be able to access your contracts except you and your nominated users.  We will be able to access your contracts for maintenance or trouble-shooting purposes, but if we do that it will be under the same rules of client confidentiality that bind us in respect of all our clients.