Tech & Sourcing @ Morgan Lewis

Are you a customer negotiating a services agreement that will grant you access to use certain technology? Have you read through the agreement or accompanying links to determine if you need to adhere to an acceptable use policy (AUP) for such technology? In this post, we’ll discuss some of the items a customer should consider when reviewing AUPs within services agreements.

In order to stay competitive, companies are investing in major technology transformations, including the modernization of foundational platforms and the implementation of new customer-facing digital channels, as well as shifting significant workloads from on-premises solutions to the cloud.

If you are just wrapping your head around the concepts of virtual reality and augmented reality, it may be time to get past the learning curve, as more technology companies are talking about creating the “metaverse.”

On September 2, 2021, the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia granted the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s (USPTO’s) motion for summary judgement, finding that an artificial intelligence (AI) system cannot be named as an inventor on a patent.

US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo announced on September 8 that the Department of Commerce established a high-level committee to advise the federal government on a range of issues related to artificial intelligence (AI) and the National Artificial Intelligence Initiative (the Initiative).

According to recent guidance from the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), providers of health apps and connected devices that collect consumers’ health information must comply with the FTC’s Health Breach Notification Rule, 16 CFR Part 318, and therefore are required to notify consumers and others when their health data is breached.

Various Chinese regulators announced a blanket ban on all cryptocurrency transactions and mining, the latest in a concerted effort to address illicit activities conducted using digital assets. The announcement on September 24, 2021, authored by a group of agencies including the China Securities Regulatory Commission and the People’s Bank of China, among others, represents the government’s most direct and sweeping action against cryptocurrencies to date. “Virtual currency derivative transactions are all illegal financial activities and are strictly prohibited,” the People’s Bank of China said on its website.

It has become increasingly clear that improving cybersecurity will be a main focus, and important goal, of the Biden-Harris administration.

We recently issued a reminder of the September 1 effective date of China’s new Data Security Law (DSL) and its potential impact on all business operators in China, including multinational corporations. But the DSL is not the only development from Chinese regulators that affects technology companies operating in the country, specifically ecommerce companies.

As the availability and variety of digital health tools continue to increase, evidence is also being presented that those tools are having a meaningful impact on health outcomes. A recent report, Digital Health Trends 2021: Innovation, Evidence, Regulation, and Adoption, offered by the IQVIA Institute for Human Data Science, looks at the proliferation of digital health tools, recent innovations in the market, and contributions and barriers to their adoption.