Software Licensing
Software Licenses: How Do You Recognize a Poorly Written Contract?
Do you know how to recognize a poorly written software license? This firm’s affiliated blog, Silicon Valley Software Law Blog, addressed the issue of recognizing poorly written software agreements in a recent blog post, describing six signs you should watch for in order to identify a poorly drafted agreement: http://www.siliconvalleysoftwarelaw.com/signs-you-are-reviewing-a-poorly-written-software-contract
Read MoreSeries on ALI Software Contract Principles: Clarify Rules on Implied and Express Warranties in Software Contracts
We continue today with our series on the new American Law Institute Principles of the Law of Software Contracts with a discussion of what software companies need to know about the Principles’ treatment of warranties. Again, for any of you who have not read our earlier postings on this subject, the importance of the Principles…
Read MoreSeries on ALI Software Contract Principles: Changes Default Rule from Implied Warranty to Implied Indemnification Against Infringement
As we posted yesterday, the American Law Institute has just approved its Principles of the Law of Software Contracts. As promised, we are launching today the first in a series of postings on the new Principles to educate our blog readers in the software industry on the practical implications of these Principles. If you have…
Read MoreAmerican Law Institute Approves Principles of the Law of Software Contracts
The American Law Institute (“ALI”) recently approved at its 86th Annual Meeting the proposed final draft of the Principles of the Law of Software Contracts. For those blog readers who are not familiar with the ALI, this is a legal professional organization, which is known for publishing authoritative restatements of the law. It is considered…
Read MoreCollaborating Can Create Legal Headaches if the Appropriate IP Agreements Are Not in Place
If you run a small business, you have probably given some thought over this recession to how you might be able to collaborate with other businesses to generate some additional revenue for your business. I know that this is definitely something that I have been thinking about for my practice, and it is something that…
Read MoreMaintenance Agreements: How to Ensure Your Revenue Stream Continues Through the Recession
It’s inevitable: in a recession, most businesses are trying to cut costs wherever they can. Every business owner is seeing the effects of this all around them. So, if you are a software company, how do you keep your maintenance agreements from being the target of one of these cuts? The Software Licensing and Master…
Read MoreShould the Blogosphere Adopt the Creative Commons Licensing Model?
A posting by Kevin Smith on the Scholarly Communications @ Duke Blog explores the argument that the academic world should consider adopting the Creative Commons Licensing system for their academic works. The article got me to thinking: should the blogosphere consider adopting the same model? Smith’s argument is that the problem with the current copyright…
Read MoreCutting Legal Costs by Investing in Good Templates
In a recent blog post, AdamsDrafting suggested that the recession should prompt companies to look at overhauling their contract template process. AdamsDrafting wrote A recession should provide a greater incentive for a company to do something about the considerable amounts of time and money that it’s wasting due to its mediocre templates and primitive contract…
Read MoreOpen Source Licensing: Is it a Viable Business Model?
Open Source Software Licensing in its “pure” form is not a viable business model, reported CMS Wire on a study recently conducted by the 451 Group. According to the CMS Wire report, the 451 Group study looked at the business strategies of some 114 open source vendors, and found as follows: -The majority of open…
Read MoreLicense Grant Language: How Should it be Drafted?
Ken Adams at Adams Drafting raised an interesting question about the proper drafting of a license grant in a software license. In particular, Adams questions the drafting of the following clause: Acme hereby grants Widgetco a nonexclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, fully paid-up, worldwide license to the Software (that license, the “License“). I agree with Adams…
Read MoreConsortia Licensing: Is this an ideal way to license intellectual property?
The Licensing Handbook Blog ran an interesting posting today on consortia agreements. I am currently in the middle of a consortia negotiation, so the posting caught my attention. The Licensing Handbook Blog posting responded to a posting by SpendMatters, which had stated that participating in purchasing consortia can be an excellent means of leveraging resources…
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