2 Takeways From the CarrierIQ Situation, from a SaaS Attorney Ok this CarrierIQ situation is really crazy, but there are some things (from a SaaS Attorney’s perspective) that every software or SaaS company should think about. 1) Who is really at fault here: CarrierIQ or the carriers? While this is
This is a pretty fundamental concept in any software negotiation, so this is something you have to master. One of the big guns (William Ury) from the Program on Negotiations at Harvard (which is in my opinion the best negotiation program out there), wrote a book on how to say ‘No.’ If you
A Take on Kevin Mitnick’s New Book (from a Software Attorney) Ok, if you have not heard of Kevin Mitnick and you are in the software industry, then he is someone you need to know about. He is probably the most notorious hacker in US history, and he released his
Ok, let me see if I can explain this issue a little better. Can you use third party software (for example, Microsoft’s SQL Server) in your partner’s demo lab for testing your software? Can you go onsite to a prospect and use/leave SQL Server in a demonstration environment for 3
It is not often that there is a reported case specifically addressing exclusive software licensing, so I thought I would share 3 takeaways from this 2011 case (HyperQuest vs N’Site Solutions). I will definitely not bore you with the long and detailled facts in this case, so let’s get to
You may have already heard of this open source license, but if not, here are a few things every SaaS company needs to know about the Afferro GPL or AGPL (at least from the perspective of an open source attorney). 1) If you use AGPL’d code or modified code in
Software Licensing Attorney’s View on License Agreement ‘Restrictions.’ As you know, software license agreements contain restrictions (= things you cannot do with the software). As a software license attorney, I would say that these are examples of the most common restrictions (e.g. (1) don’t reverse engineer or decompile the software and
FTC’s Negative Option Rule & Online Offers-Renewals. What You Should Know! The Federal Trade Commission (aka FTC) has a rule called the Negative Option Rule, which I really think every SaaS and software company should know about. The definition. Negative Option means –
The simple answer is no, don’t do it. Ok, let me explain. Background: Where is this whole idea even coming from in the SaaS law or software law regime? Many customers are counseled or taught (BTW, there are lots of companies teaching your customers how to negotiate and buy from
The answer is, yes. A very recent case ruled that the parties conversation on only IM changed the contract, even though there was nothing actually signed to reflect the change (as a software licensing lawyer, I am always looking for cases like this for you). Does this sound like a
3 ‘PRIVACY’ Takeaways from the Google Buzz FTC Settlement in March 2011 As you may have heard, Google settled with the Federal Trade Commission regarding its rollout of Google Buzz and its alleged privacy violations during that rollout. There are a few SAAS privacy or software privacy tips here, so
There are many different places to go for negotiations training (in general), but where is a great place for learning about the art of software negotiations with customers, partners, etc. I highly recommend the Program on Negotiations at Harvard. I have attended some of their seminars, read some of their
3 Things You Must Learn From a Survey of 358 Trade Secret Cases A recent survey of over Statistical Analysis of Trade Secret Litigation in State Courts (from 1995-2009) has some great nuggets for every software or SAAS company looking to protect its SAAS trade secrets and software trade secrets
I have been delaying writing a blog post about API license agreements, as I could not find a good real world example to go along with the post. Well, Twitter gave me that real world example, as they recently changed their API license agreement (which caused quite an uproar in
I finally found a really useful working paper and law review article written by some European open source attorneys and the Free Software Foundation Europe on linking issues and the GPL license. I thought I would share some of the highlights with you as it is really hard to
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