Client Testimonials
"My priorities when using lawyers are excellent service, competitive rates and an in-depth experience of the legal issues facing the software industry. We chose Waterfront... over larger, more established law firms because they deliver on these priorities and, without fail, make us feel as if we are their number one client"
Simon Thorne, Finance Director, Manpower Software Plc
Intellectual Property Rights
Intellectual property rights - copyright, patents, trademarks etc - are relevant in the context of technology contracts for two main reasons. It is your ownership of intellectual property rights in your technology that allow you to protect the technology as an asset and exploit it for commercial value. There are various ways of asserting your ownership of the technology as an asset and as the owner of an intellectual property right you may, for example, licence, rent, assign, sell and develop the right.
As well as exploiting your intellectual property rights, your contracts should ensure that you limit the risk of infringing someone else's intellectual property. For example, contracts should not assert that you own software if the copyright is actually owned, in whole or part, by a third party since if you make a statement that is not factually correct, your customer may be able to claim damages for misrepresentation and breach of contract.
Moreover, technology companies tend to give general indemnity clauses to their customers in respect of infringement of third party patents. You should not contractually represent that you do not infringe patents anywhere other than in the UK since you cannot know that what you are stating in the contract is correct.