Tech & Sourcing @ Morgan Lewis

On November 18, days before the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 was due to start, Anheuser-Busch InBev (the owner of Budweiser, a World Cup sponsor since 1985) was dealt an unexpected yellow card: FIFA issued a statement that appeared to renege on certain terms of their $75 million (£63 million) commercial sponsorship agreement.

The US Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security released an interim final rule (IFR) on October 7 imposing new export controls on certain advanced computing and semiconductor manufacturing destined for the People’s Republic of China (PRC). In their LawFlash, partners Giovanna Cinelli, Kenneth Nunnenkamp, and Carl Valenstein; of counsel Heather Sears; and associates Katelyn Hilferty, Christian Kozlowski, Patricia Cave, and Jiazhen Guo discuss the scope of the new export controls, open issues and questions regarding the regulation, and potential courses of action to consider.

In a webinar that has value for all technology clients, Morgan Lewis partners Kenneth Davis and Ezra Church will review intellectual property (IP) protection and cyber threats for growing businesses.

Please join us for our Artificial Intelligence Boot Camp series, beginning November 1, 2022, as we explore the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) across industries. Our presenters will cover a wide range of topics, including contracting for AI in digital transformation, key issues in AI patents and copyrights, digital health, ethics, and more.

Please join us on Thursday, October 27, 2022, at 3:00 pm ET as Morgan Lewis partner Jacob Harper and associates Tesch Leigh West and Sydney Swanson discuss the importance of managing and protecting healthcare data while controlling costs and coordinating care. Topics will include the different types of data sharing agreements and implications of HIPAA and the Anti-Kickback Statute.

The financial services regulations relating to outsourcing by Luxembourg-headquartered financial institutions have been significantly simplified by the introduction of the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF) outsourcing circular CSSF 22/806 (Outsourcing Circular).

With the COVID-19 pandemic, many industries experienced a major shift in how the personnel of key suppliers worked, with “nonessential” personnel in large part working remotely. When this shift to remote work first happened (rather abruptly for many companies), security was a critical consideration, but one that was handled in many instances outside the supplier contract, with both parties focusing on keeping business operations going with must-have data and security safeguards in place.

As part of our Spotlight series, we spoke with Mike Pierides, the deputy leader of our technology, outsourcing, and commercial transactions team and a co-leader of our digital solutions industry team, on outsourcing in the financial services (FS) sector.

The COVID-19 pandemic introduced unprecedented challenges, requiring companies to adapt quickly to the way their personnel work, changes in their business offerings, and how they interact with their customers and suppliers. With some time to adjust to the “new normal” of the pandemic (and hopefully soon, the post-pandemic), many companies are looking ahead—with a potential economic downturn being top of mind.

The race to improve, automate, and modernize business operations has led many companies to reexamine their foundational digital platforms to assess whether it is time (or past time) to transform these platforms to better support and keep pace with current and future business needs and leverage state-of-the-art technologies. While the possibilities of platform transformations are exciting—from disruptive functionality and analytics to enhanced user experience—they can also be daunting from a project management, timeline, and cost perspective.