Machine learning agreements or AI agreements are super new, and actually very interesting. Not much has been written on these agreements, so I thought I would share a few thoughts on the big issues (from the perspective of the AI/machine learning software vendor). So here goes. HOW THE AI SYSTEM
These Words are ‘Dangerous’ in Any SaaS or Software Agreement. I have seen wording like this in SaaS or software agreement orders or templates, and it has always bothered me. A case from 2014 addressed this issue head on, so I thought I would share the outcome of the case with
On May 9, 2014, the appellate court handed down its 69-page decision in the Oracle v. Google API copyright case. The court ruled in favor of Oracle but pushed some remaining issues back to the lower court. A few takeaways for software and SaaS companies. Thin Slicing. One clear theme
Microsoft Finally Got It Right. They Created a Plain English EULA. Microsoft drafted their Windows 8 EULA in plain English and in a way that has never been done before (at least based on what I have read — and I read a lot of EULAs). The New EULA Structure.
Two questions that come up: Can you use third-party software (e.g., Microsoft 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 weeks so they can test your software? This is a
It is not often that there is a reported case specifically addressing exclusive software licensing, so here are 3 takeaways from a 2011 case — HyperQuest v. N’Site Solutions. Key Takeaways: 1) If you want copyright law to protect you, use copyright wording in your exclusive license grant. There are
A Software Licensing Attorney’s View on License Agreement Restrictions. Software license agreements contain restrictions — things you cannot do with the software. The most common: (1) don’t reverse engineer or decompile the software, and (2) don’t let a third party use the software. But there are unique restrictions too. Two
FTC’s Negative Option Rule & Online Offers/Renewals: What You Should Know. The Federal Trade Commission has a rule called the Negative Option Rule, which every SaaS and software company should know about. Definition: Negative Option means — when someone “fails to act” (silence) it counts as accepting a contract. Q:
The answer is yes. A 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 always look for cases like this. Let’s run through the IM conversation, the legal logic,
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 get
This is an issue near and dear to me, as I have spent a large part of my career drafting and negotiating enterprise license agreements. Many growing software companies are trying to figure out how to design their enterprise license agreement, so some thoughts on it would be helpful. What
What You Should Not Do To Your Competitor (after SAP tried it and got caught). I have been reading the pleadings in the Oracle v. SAP case — the 2010 $1.3 billion judgment case — and put together takeaways for SaaS and software companies on what NOT to do. Background:
If you operate a software-based business, you are likely using some open source code in your product. There is nothing wrong with that — it’s common, and probably a best practice. But what is your process to review and track that code, and the associated license terms? Here are 3
Here are 3 things every software company can learn from SAP being sued under a software OEM agreement. Without going into the nitty gritty of the details of the case, here is a summary of the facts: SAP distributed and sublicensed certain AMC Technology software embedded with a SAP product.
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