Tech & Sourcing @ Morgan Lewis

We are excited to welcome Mathilde Carle as a partner in Morgan Lewis’s Paris office and as a guest contributor to our Tech & Sourcing Spotlight series to discuss intellectual property (IP) protection and other related issues in agreements to design, build, license, host, and support digital solutions, including automation, AI, and software as a service (SaaS) products.

We invite you to join us for the next installment of the Tech & Sourcing webinar series Data 2025 on Wednesday, January 8, 2025 at 12 pm ET.

As we look ahead to 2025, it's clear that the next few years will bring about groundbreaking shifts across industries, with technologies such as AI, quantum computing, data centers, robotics, and autonomous vehicles leading the charge. These innovations are far more than buzzwords—they have the potential to redefine how we live, work, and interact. In this article, we dive into the top technologies set to make a significant impact in 2025 and explore why they’re worth watching closely.

Open-source software (OSS) and artificial intelligence (AI) are commonly used terms in today’s rapidly evolving tech landscape. Both are pivotal in shaping modern technology but are rooted in different goals and philosophies. OSS promotes collaboration and transparency, while AI looks to mimic human behaviors. Despite their objective differences, there are intriguing intersections between OSS and AI, which this article will explore.

In today’s rapidly evolving marketplace, innovation is not just a competitive edge but rather an expectation. Customers increasingly rely on their vendors to provide cutting-edge technology and stay ahead of industry trends. As such, a critical question arises: Should customers require service providers to agree to a contractual obligation to continually evolve and innovate their service offerings?

In many standard service agreements, providers will typically be required to deliver their services in accordance with generally accepted industry standards and practices and with professionalism and a level of skill appropriate to the agreement’s demands. While this standard often serves as a benchmark, it is rarely spelled out in detail. To reduce ambiguity, some agreements may go a step further, introducing a defined term to capture the expected service quality.

We invite you to join us for the next installment of the Morgan Lewis M&A Academy webinar series on Tuesday, December 3, 2024, at 11:30 am ET.

In the case of the ownership of intellectual property (IP) developed by a supplier as part of a service agreement with a customer, should the traditional position that the customer should own all developed IP always be the position agreed upon by the parties?

Our technology transactions, outsourcing, and commercial contracts team on October 30, 2024 held its annual industry summit in New York. The theme this year was Unleashing the Potential of Technology, with a focus on artificial intelligence (AI). Attendees included in-house counsel and sourcing professionals across a number of industries, including representatives from the client and vendor side. The diverse audience led to highly interactive discussions among some of the leading voices in the tech and sourcing fields.

As more and more purchases of digital content happen online, without delivery of any physical media to the purchaser, consumers may not be able to access their purchased content in situations where vendors have removed such content from their online libraries, platforms, or apps unilaterally as the result of the expiration or revocation of the content rights. In response to numerous consumer complaints about this occurred or threatened loss of access rights to content purchased online, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB-2426 into law on September 24, 2024. The bill will come into effect on January 1, 2025.