Contract drafters regularly confuse cloud services with traditional products and services. They approach software-as-a-service and other cloud services as if they were either software products or old-style services, like professional... read more →
On January 27 and 28 of 2020, David Tollen will be speaking at the Advanced Licensing Agreements 2020 conference in San Francisco, from the Practicing Law Institute (PLI). It's a... read more →
The one hour webinar David Tollen presented on December 3rd is now available online. Click here to access it through our host, The Western Banker's Association. The presentation addresses how... read more →
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... read more →
By David W. Tollen Tech industry professionals use “intellectual property” to describe two different creatures. They also use “IP lawyer” for a broad list of professionals with little in common. Few... read more →
Many software-as-a-service (SaaS) contracts grant a "license" to use the vendor's software. That's a mistake. Licenses are for on-premise software. SaaS is a service, as the name implies, and it... read more →
CIO.com recently published an article by our founder, David Tollen. Please click here.
By David W. Tollen This is the fourth in a series of five posts on Open Source in Software Procurement. Click here for the prior post, and click here for the intro, which... read more →
By David W. Tollen This is the third in a series of five posts on Open Source in Software Procurement. Click here for the prior post, and click here for the... read more →
Contract drafters rarely understand open source software (OSS). They see it as a threat, so when they're buying software, they try to exclude OSS from their vendors' products. In most... read more →
by Deborah Pulido If you are an internet service provider taking advantage of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act safe harbor, you have until December 31, 2017 to re-register your designated... read more →
by David W. Tollen and Nathan Leong You’re a lawyer looking for online software and other tools to run your firm—tools like email, word processing, calendaring, timenotes, legal research, and... read more →
We’ve posted a new contract in the forms library — and it’s available in MS Word (no charge, as always). It's meant to serve as a customer's primary contract for... read more →
Capterra's IT Management Blog just published an article by David Tollen: 5 Simple Rules for Negotiating Software and IT Contracts. It's a customer-focused articles, addressing five mistakes customers tend to... read more →
We've posted a new contract in the forms library -- and it's available to you in MS Word (no charge, as always). The new form is for professional services by... read more →
Managing and sharing big data creates technical challenges unlike anything found in traditional data-sharing relationships. But big data contracts don’t involve a whole new field of legal knowledge. If you’ve... read more →
In an earlier post, I explained that the standard "feedback license" arises out of a misunderstanding of IP -- and generally asks too much from the would-be licensor. After some... read more →
In last week's post, I addressed the myth of idea ownership. I explained that no one can own an abstract idea. I also argued that, therefore, no one needs a... read more →
Technology companies often worry about ownership of ideas they hear. If a contractor or partner gives us an idea, do we need a license to use it? What if it's... read more →
Most IT contract drafters know the difference between a software license agreement and a technology services contract. In a license, the customer gets rights to copy and use software, while... read more →
