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
What to Know About the “Combination Exception” to Infringement Indemnities. As a software licensing attorney I run into infringement indemnity issues all the time. These risk-shifting contractual clauses can be confusing for clients, so I’ll explain — with a real case and a graphic — what is called the combination
There are some great lessons here regarding SaaS confidentiality agreements (aka NDAs). Background: A startup SaaS company disclosed its confidential consumer electronic buyback program information when trying to win the business from a ‘prospective customer’ = Best Buy. Best Buy gave all the right buying signals and Techforward went even further and
Tell Your Customer to Back Up Their Data (so Says the Utah Supreme Court). The Utah Supreme Court ruled in June 2012 that when a software vendor is sued for software-caused destruction of customer data, it really matters whether the software vendor told the customer to back up its data.
2 Takeaways From the CarrierIQ Situation, from a SaaS Attorney The CarrierIQ situation is crazy, but there are some things every software or SaaS company should think about. 1) Who is really at fault — CarrierIQ or the carriers? CarrierIQ is the software provider; the carriers licensed the software for
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
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,
3 Privacy Takeaways from the Google Buzz FTC Settlement Google settled with the Federal Trade Commission over its rollout of Google Buzz and alleged privacy violations during that rollout. A few SaaS privacy tips for software vendors. 1) It Is All About DEFAULT Privacy Settings. If you add a new
3 Things You Must Learn From a Survey of 358 Trade Secret Cases A recent Statistical Analysis of Trade Secret Litigation in State Courts (1995-2009) has practical nuggets for every software or SaaS company looking to protect its trade secrets. Q: What is a Trade Secret? A trade secret is
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:
I have been tracking Starwood v. Hilton Hotels for its practical lessons on protecting confidential and trade-secret information when employees move to a competitor. The case settled in December 2010. Background: Two top-level Starwood employees who worked on developing the W brand of hotels left for Hilton, allegedly taking with
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.
How to Get Sued Over Your Software EULA/SaaS Contract, and Lose! There is a court case you should be aware of where the software company lost big — and now owes the customer around $246 million for a software/services deal gone bad. The case: Dillards (the customer) sued i2 (later
Quick background: Oracle was sued on July 29, 2010 by the Department of Justice alleging that Oracle overcharged the government when it licensed its software. How does this work? When a company wants to sell significant volume to the government, it files a CSP-1 (Commercial Sales Practices Format chart) as
3 Privacy Tips for a Software or SaaS Company (Courtesy of the US Supreme Court) The US Supreme Court decision in City of Ontario v. Quon — an employee privacy expectation case — intentionally avoided giving a lot of specific guidance, but there are takeaways. 1) Computer/Technology Usage Policies Matter.
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