David Tollen Speaking at Western Bankers Association
On August 26, David Tollen will be speaking at the 2019 Education Summit & Regulatory Compliance Conference — a Western Bankers Association (WBA) event. David is giving the Technology & Ops presentation. His topic is “Cloud Computing Contracts: How Banks Can Get the Best Terms.” The conference is in Huntington Beach, California (at the Hyatt […]
Auto-Renewal Best Practices for B2C Contracts
Most SaaS vendors rely on automatic renewal terms — and love them. If the customer doesn’t think to cancel shortly before the term ends, the contract automatically renews. But the U.S. states have begun to clamp down on auto-renewal in B2C contracts — in agreements with consumers. South Dakota passed a restrictive law this summer, […]
Routine Government Review of Social Media
Last month, the U.S. Department of State started requiring that visa applicants list their social media handles. Would-be immigrants and visitors to the U.S. don’t have to provide passwords, but they do have to provide their “identifiers” on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and other networks. The new requirement apparently drew little attention outside immigration law circles, […]
Browsewraps Could Be Enforced
The Tech Contracts Handbook warns website operators not to rely on browsewraps: contracts posted online without a click-to-agree requirement. In fact, the book warns against any contract executed or even amended without without clear consent from the customer, like an “I agree” click. (See TCH 2nd Ed. Ch. III.S and Append. 3.) Without that sort […]
Don’t Grant Feedback Licenses (Do this Instead)
Please click here for an updated version of this post. The feedback license appears in many tech contracts. It usually gives the vendor a broad, perpetual license to any “feedback” from the customer’s staff: any suggestion about the vendor’s products and services. Sometimes the clause goes further, assigning ownership of feedback to the vendor. (Click […]
How to Characterize IT
There is no universally accepted industry standard that defines key terms like “cloud computing,” “software-as-a-service,” “platform-as-as-service,” or “infrastructure-as-a-service.” Experts disagree on these terms’ definitions, and that points to the need to define common terms within contracts. Here are definitions used in The Tech Contracts Handbook, which provide a good starting point for most purposes. “Cloud […]
“Coming to the Table” podcast with David Tollen
Recently, I sat down for a “Thought Leader” discussion on the Coming to the Table video podcast. It’s a program on the future of negotiation, hosted by Keld Jensen and the Thunderbird School of Global Management, at Arizona State University. Mr. Jensen is himself a thought leader and author, as well as an expert on negotiation and […]
Don’t be a philosopher: Seek the “best option” not what’s “fair”
Some businesspeople and lawyers debate whether proposed contract terms would be fair. I think that’s an unhelpful view of contracts, for two reasons. First, it’s hard or even impossible to define “fair” in contract negotiations. Second, a focus on what’s fair may lead you to reject deals that make economic sense, or to accept deals […]
Interview at ColinSLevy.com
Colin Levy just posted an interview with our founder, David Tollen. Colin is corporate counsel at Salary.com, and he runs a great blog about legal innovation and legal technology, at ColinSLevy.com. Please click here to read the interview!
Most Innovative Information Tech Law Firm
We are very proud to announce that our founder’s law firm has won another award! Sycamore Legal P.C., was awarded Most Innovative Information Technology Law Firm 2019 – California, by Acquisition INTL Magazine. Here’s what AI magazine says about the award: “Our 2019 Global Excellence recipients are handpicked by AI magazine based on the comprehensive analysis and […]