Technology

Artificial intelligence (AI) and automation are no longer futuristic technologies, as elements are rapidly becoming more apparent in every industry and facet of daily life. As the incentives for AI innovations have increased, spending on research, development, and implementation of these disruptive technologies will grow ever faster. Extending beyond software, automation is integrated in hardware devices like self-driving cars and other autonomous vehicles, robotic manufacturing tools, chatbots, and household appliances. AI systems will increasingly be used in cybersecurity not only to protect personal privacy and security, but also to protect big data sets and the businesses that rely upon them.

As with most emerging areas, AI and machine learning (ML) technologies are outpacing the legal, compliance, and regulatory landscape. Anchored by lawyers with in-house counsel, government agency, and veteran industry experience, our global team guides businesses through the complex intellectual property, contract, security, privacy, and ethical concerns that may arise, including the following:

• Financing, funding, and mergers and acquisitions in the space
• Contracts and deals relating to AI technologies, assets, and companies
• Ethical and regulatory issues relating to AI tools
• Intellectual property issues, including patenting and licensing AI-related technologies
• Strategic and tactical advice on how to navigate regulatory changes
• Ediscovery
• Expertise automation

With up-to-the-minute command of the trends, emerging markets, and evolving law and regulation affecting the electronics industry, Morgan Lewis lawyers partner strategically with global leaders in this space—as well as with some of the world's most promising and innovative electronics startups.

Our lawyers have handled many of the sector's groundbreaking transactions (including technology acquisitions and outsourcing), innovative corporate strategies (including financings), high-stakes commercial and antitrust disputes, game-changing workforce solutions and mission-critical IP matters. Our work for hundreds of electronics clients has also included privacy and cybersecurity, real estate, tax, trade secrets, supply chain, executive compensation, and restrictive covenant matters.

For those we represent, our comprehensive insight translates into an ability to anticipate and manage risk while seizing emerging opportunities and achieving strategic goals.

Social media is ubiquitous, impacting how companies and individuals engage with each other, as well as with their employees, customers, vendors, business partners, investors, and competitors. The technology is often cutting-edge, and the legal issues cross many disciplines and stretch the bounds of existing laws and regulations. Morgan Lewis is addressing these issues on all fronts, from counseling, asset protection and risk management, to regulatory actions and litigation. We represent a wide range of social media companies, as well as clients in all sectors who use social media in myriad ways to provide services and promote their business.

We work with a wide variety of companies to identify risks inherent in using social media, to protect and enforce their IP rights, and to develop and implement procedures to reduce and avoid risk. We partner with our clients to establish social media policies that cover employment issues, FTC guidelines, and FDA, SEC, and other regulatory issues in countries around the world, to complete creative transactions, outsourcing and licensing deals, and to navigate difficult privacy issues related to collecting, storing, and securing digital data through social media channels. Social media also raises challenging issues related to brand/corporate reputation, ownership and control of social media accounts, trade secret protection, and harassment and discrimination, and our lawyers have experience in all of these areas, coordinating across teams and across offices. We also regularly represent clients in a range of litigation and regulatory matters, from government investigations and litigation regarding the use and disposal of personal data to employer group health privacy and data breaches.

We understand how vital social media is to the success of most companies—whether they are established or newly emerging—and we are here to help them safely navigate this complex territory.

We represent some of the global semiconductor sector’s largest and best-known companies, as well as early-stage growth enterprises.

Our lawyers have a wide range of backgrounds, ranging from chemistry, materials science, and semiconductor tools and processing, to circuit design and electrical engineering. With this assortment of skill sets, we help a spectrum of businesses—from tool and device manufacturers to fabless semiconductor companies and the venture capitalists and financial institutions that fund them—to grow in a rapidly changing competitive environment.

We work in prominent technology hubs across the United States, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, offering a complete menu of services including corporate issues and technology transactions, antitrust, patent prosecution, strategy and litigation, trademark and copyright, trade secrets and noncompetition, privacy and data security, tax, transfer pricing, executive compensation, labor, employment, and benefits, outsourcing, and immigration.

We assist semiconductor companies, and semiconductor equipment and device manufacturers, with legal issues related to semiconductor and electronic manufacturing equipment, electronic design automation (EDA) tools, devices and device fabrication, circuits, and masks.

Our experience dealing with software related legal issues is unparalleled, as we offer a full-range of transactional, litigation, and compliance services around the globe to all sizes of enterprises from single-software-application start-ups to multi-brand Fortune 500 companies. In particular, our software-focused team routinely handles business and finance, intellectual property, tax, labor and employment, privacy, litigation, antitrust, cybersecurity, tax, restrictive covenants, executive compensation, white-collar crime, real-estate, and immigration issues. Our award-winning IP team handles complex IP matters, including licensing transactions and trademark and patent preparation, prosecution, counseling, and enforcement for some of the world’s leading software companies and institutions, and various universities. Over the last few years, our litigators have won three nine-figure verdicts and regularly defend software companies in patent, trademark, copyright, trade-secret, antitrust, tax, white-collar crime, and employment disputes. Our immigration practice has one of the firm's highest concentrations of technology clients because we offer an understanding of immigration issues and cultural values around the globe, and particularly in Asia. Our business and transactional lawyers have handled many of the industry's groundbreaking transactions (including technology acquisitions and outsourcing), innovative corporate strategies (including financings), and standards body formations. Our tax lawyers handle many of the problems facing software companies, including transfer pricing issues. Finally, our executive compensation lawyers routinely provide counseling for some of the world’s leading software companies.

Morgan Lewis lawyers bring cutting-edge business, industry, and regulatory insights to every matter affecting clients in the intersecting fields of telecommunications, media, and technology. Over the last quarter century, we have been at the table in nearly every significant communications industry development in the United States and globally. Providing insight into the major US regulatory agencies as well as federal, state, and non-US government bodies, our lawyers partner with clients to anticipate the latest market developments, regulatory changes, legislative actions, and commercial and technical issues, and provide guidance to best serve clients’ strategic interests.

As part of a global, full-service firm, our lawyers regularly collaborate with top-level lawyers in other areas—including antitrust, restructuring, finance, mergers and acquisitions, and intellectual property. This enables us to meet our clients’ needs for broad and deep advice in policy, federal and state regulatory, transactional, international, litigation, legislative, equipment and manufacturing regulation, licensing, broadcast, privacy and cybersecurity, tax, and land-use matters.

Among the companies we serve are established and emerging telecommunications carriers; VoIP, broadband and Internet application providers; wireless and satellite companies; cable operators, competitive video service providers; broadcasters and media companies; equipment manufacturers; large users of communications services; systems integrators; and investment banks, venture funds, and hedge fund managers.