Software Licensing

Software Licence Lawyers

Allied with our experience advising on technology contracts and licensing is our experience advising on software licensing & contracts. Licensing of software deals with matters extending well beyond just the permissions to third parties.

A properly advised entrant to a software licence will be aware of the rights which are being dealt with and what those permissions mean going forwarded, entitlements to updates and upgrades, the legal effect of warranties, disclaimers, limitations and exclusions of liability and the potential consequences of agreeing to particular terms in transactions.

Extending beyond this there are issues relating to management of intellectual property rights, allocation of ownership and licensing of rights relating to data produced by software, risk for data sharing and distribution and use of big data.

Licensing Specialists

Our specialist software licence lawyers provide legal advice on licenses and breaches of software licences to businesses in the UK and internationally. We have prepared, advised on and negotiated software licensing contracts in respect to:

• long term value added reseller agreements of market leading software;
• legal structures and models for distribution and licensing of software globally;
• framework agreements to ease administrative burdens for licensees of larger,
• licensing of established packages comprising functionality to be bundled with improvements, and enhanced UIs and functionality add-ons;
• cross-licences of multiple companies software combined with IT services;
• arrangements for integration of suites of software and branding rights;
• warranties and the limiting conditions to the effect to minimise exposure to risk;
• limitations of liability and exclusions of liability;
• dedicated services for online distribution and streaming of films and music;
• rights existing in data produced management reports used in industries such as banking and financial services;
• assessing licence entitlement rights under Oracle, iOS, Android, Open Source Software Licences;
• knowledge searching and management for enterprise search of multiple repositories; data analysis of big data;
• advising on the incorporation of open source software in proprietary software;.
• consolidation of rights owned by different companies in the same global group;
• due diligence and auditing asserted rights in software to assess ownership and strength of rights software prior to acquisitions;
• audits of use of licensed software by businesses, prompted by Microsoft, Adobe, AutoDesk and others;
• assessment of proposed terms of licences to banks and insurance companies;
• management of and disclosure of software trade secrets required by court orders.

Solicitors adivisng on Software Licences

We have advised in respect of software used in a variety of sectors including military applications, online gaming, online automated share market trading software, streaming of films and music, and to transfer money around the world.

This has included software designed to perform:

• functional test automation;
• assessments of use of energy, such as electricity and gas in factories and office towers;
• quality assurance engineers;
• as software development platforms;
• touch based UIs, gesture inputs for mobile handsets and tablets;
• automated test environments;
• military applications to be used in warfare in theatres of war
• performance management software;
• mobile device test platforms;
• corporate training applications;
• ediscovery applications;
• content management systems designed to host the corporate website presence for brand name companies, their distribution network and dealers;
• software designed to integrate with banking networks;
• biometric identification applications for use in airports.

Legal Advice

When advising on software licenses such as these, our software licensing lawyers have assisted our clients by identifying and providing legal advice on such matters as whether:

1. software and associated can be sublicensed to others;
2. it can be combined with other software products;
3. corporate can be used in conjunction with the sublicensed software;
4. whether contracts allow building of distribution networks;
5. IP rights in software developed for the licensed product is owned by the developer or whether it is automatically owned by the licensor
6. ownership and other valuable rights associated with software are automatically lost and thrown away immediately upon signing a contractual licence;
7. trade marks of others may be used to market and products and services associated with software
8. ambiguity exists which may render enforcement of contractual rights more difficult, uneconomical  or impossible
9. tricks of the trade in contractual drafting have been used, so as to give misleading appearance of the contractual effect of legal documentation;
10. Advising on standard terms of contract which are omitted from drafts, but should reasonably be included

We are well qualified and experienced to unravel and explain the legal effect of  lawyer’s jargon, to allow our clients to focus on the legal issues which should to be addressed and negotiated by the business rather than the legal team.

London Business Solicitors & Lawyers

Our Solicitors in London assist businesses in the UK and internationally to create options, achieve realistic and attainable goals, and providing guidance to assist decision-making in a commercial context.

For more information, legal advice or to find out more about the legal services we provide, call 020 7353 1770 or contact us online.