When it comes to technology, last week's innovations are this week's past practice. The Technology Law attorneys at Polsinelli Shughart PC deal on a daily basis with companies creating or using technology in today’s world. Our technology law attorneys have assisted with negotiating and documenting transactions to protect, acquire and develop technology throughout the world. Our familiarity with your technology and industry norms means there is no “learning curve” that costs you time or money.
Counted among our clients are businesses operating in a number of areas within the technology industry, including software developers, multimedia content creators and distributors, Internet and mobile-based businesses, social networking service providers, value-added resellers, systems integrators and a myriad of data center service providers. In the global playing field, Polsinelli Shughart stands out for its worldwide work in designing and implementing technology strategies.
Our lawyers routinely provide counsel on matters such as:
- Technology development, consulting and services agreements
- Inbound and outbound software licensing agreements
- Evaluation (beta) licensing models and agreements
- Software as a Service (SaaS) licensing models and agreements
- Hosting, Colocation and Data Center Services agreements
- IP auditing and counseling, copyright, trademark, trade secret and patent protection
Strategic Partnerships and Joint Marketing Arrangements
In today’s business climate, cultivating strategic partners and joint marketing opportunities are important for the development and exploitation of technology, products and markets. Often a large, well-established company may seek these arrangements to obtain access to new technologies and products, while an emerging technology company is looking to finance growth and obtain manufacturing and distribution channels.
Our technology law team can assist you with outlining strategic objectives, develop a partnering plan, selecting potential companies for partnering, negotiating a term sheet and successfully document the deal. We know how to advance your goals while creating a win-win situation for all involved.
Domain Name Related Issues (e.g. cybersquatting, typosquatting, etc.)
More than ever before, a company’s web presence is a critical part of doing business. Hard work in developing goodwill and brands can be undone by “cybersquatting” (the illegal practice of registering, or using a domain name with bad faith intent to profit from the goodwill of your trademark) or “typosquatting” (a form of cybersquatting that relies on mistakes such as typographical errors made by Internet users when inputting a website address).
These third parties infringe upon your valuable trademarks and domain names by diverting traffic from your website, diluting and tarnishing your trademarks, and otherwise harming your business. Specifically, these infringing sites:
- Divert customers and web traffic to their websites and those of your competitors
- Generate increased advertising revenue based upon traffic meant for your website
- Collect funds from search engines that you have paid for particular search terms
- Harass and annoy your customers and potential customers
- Cost your business money
Our technology law attorneys have experience in recovering your domain names through tough cease and desist demands all the way to UDRP actions or lawsuits, if necessary. In addition, we can show you steps that can be taken to protect you and your business in the future. For instance, A large real estate agency client learned that a good deal of web traffic was being diverted through misspellings of its main domain name. Together we developed a plan to recover the domain names and, in many instances, were able to do so with a few letters and phone calls before filing and winning a UDRP action to recover the remaining domain names. The client has seen an increase in web traffic and lower web advertising costs as a result.
Data Security and Privacy Issues
Today’s technology allows for the acquisition and transferring of information like never before. The desire to quickly and easily access information, coupled with the increased value of such information has put data security and privacy issues at the forefront of technology law.
Data security and privacy issues in the United States are regulated at the federal, state and local levels. These laws put increasing responsibility on the holders and users of personal information from federal laws such as HIPAA and Gramm-Leach-Biley, to over 47 individual state and territory laws regarding data security breach notification.
Our technology law attorneys can provide proactive assistance in helping clients identify the information being collected and how it is handled, used and shared with others and what laws and best practices govern. We are able to help clients adopt privacy and data security policies and craft contract clauses in order to limit a client’s liability and exposure.
In some instances no amount of preparation on the front end can stop an attack. However, a patchwork of state and local laws around data breach notification makes navigating this area difficult without legal assistance. Our technology law attorneys have experience in counseling clients with dealing with the FBI, notification obligations to state attorney general offices and crafting notifications that accurately reflect each state’s requirements but do so in a way that minimizes the public relations impact.
Finally, our technology law group is especially adept at representing providers of security solutions or consulting services. As counsel for one of the largest privately held information security firms in the country, we have addressed issues from government contracting to private investigatory licensing requirements for computer forensic firms.
Technology Startups
An important part of the technology law practice is its representation of startups and emerging growth companies. Technology startups need a law firm with the experience to provide guidance and assistance along with special fee arrangements that acknowledge the cash flow and startup nature of the business. Our technology law attorneys work to understand the startup’s business and identify ways we can provide the most value. The services we provide startups include:
- Review of business and marketing plans and financial projections
- Confidentiality and nondisclosure agreements
- Company formation and selection of entity
- Incentive based compensation and intellectual property ownership issues
- Strategic partner arrangements
- Introduction to sources of funding and service providers
- Angel and venture capital financing
- Mergers, acquisitions and liquidity sales transactions
Our technology law attorneys are able to access a full-service law firm, with experience across a number of national practice areas, including real estate, tax, securities, health care, patent prosecution and litigation, copyright and trademark registration and litigation in addition to numerous other specialty fields of practice.