IT contract law

Our IT contract law services:

IT law is characterised by the intertwining of different legal areas and requirements, and last but not least, its distinct international nature. It can be split into the following areas: software contracts, licensing agreements, as well as web design, hosting and domain contracts. We know the fine differences between the complex subject areas, and we represent software companies, purchasing departments in industry, traders, system houses and end clients.

Our IT contract law services:

  • We create and review software contracts of all types (including agile software development).
  • We provide advice in particular for different on-demand contracts, such as SaaS (Software as a Service) contracts – whereby the user’s software is provided, for example, for use in the cloud.
  • We create and review licensing agreements (software license agreements, framework contracts and end-user license agreements), project agreements (software project agreements), and maintenance agreements (software).
  • We also provide advice on IT project contracts, which are structured using the waterfall or agile models (e.g. external programming) as well as Scrum.

We provide comprehensive advice on IT contract law.

Open source software

Another focus of our work is reviewing so-called open source compliance. The copyleft effect means that selling one’s own products which use open source components creates obligations for the users, whose use constitutes a copyright infringement with severe consequences.In the worst-case scenario, this could mean the company can no longer sell its own product. We will assist you with the enforcement of open source licences in the event of license infringements by competitors, and we will provide advice on how to market your products in accordance with the licenses.

To avoid financial penalties, we recommend already consulting our experts when structuring your project. Our services include the following in particular:

  • Reviewing the license compatibility of the open source licenses used, and creating checklists for compliance with the license obligations when marketing the software
  • Requirement to approve own developments using an open source license
  • Creation of a company-wide open source compliance policy
  • Creation of project-based open source documentation

License violations of OSS can be dealt with in court by both the license holder and competitors (within the framework of competition law). There have already been numerous verdicts issued by German courts related to such disputes. We advise and represent our clients both when defending against unjustified warning letters and when initiating proceedings against competitors, which have gained an unfair competitive advantage by using OSS contrary to the license.

In all cases, our legal advice and representation covers the prevention of legal disputes, the enforcement of claims in cases of legal infringements to the detriment of our clients, and defence against unjustified claims by third parties, plus damage limitation in the event of justified claims.

We represent our clients nationwide.