Until early 2023, a public disagreement regarding open intellectual property licenses was ongoing between the owner of a significant piece of popular content—the roleplaying game Dungeons & Dragons (D&D)—and the individuals and corporates that engage with it for free.
Tech & Sourcing @ Morgan Lewis
TECHNOLOGY TRANSACTIONS, OUTSOURCING, AND COMMERCIAL CONTRACTS NEWS FOR LAWYERS AND SOURCING PROFESSIONALS
New York recently passed a law that, effective immediately, allows student athletes at colleges within the state to receive compensation for their name, image, and likeness (NIL) being used to endorse products and services, without the risk of losing their scholarships or eligibility to participate in their sports.
Contract Corner
As we reach the end of the year 2022, we have once again compiled all the links to our Contract Corner blog posts, a regular feature of Tech & Sourcing @ Morgan Lewis. In these posts, members of our global technology, outsourcing, and commercial transactions practice highlight particular contract provisions, review the issues, and propose negotiating and drafting tips.
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.
In this post, we discuss the various aspects of domain name registration in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Effective management of intellectual property is crucial in the contracting stages of technology projects. Various types of intellectual property can be subject to protection in an agreement and may receive different types of treatment. For example, copyright protection, patent protection, and know-how (trade secrets) are all subject to different rules when it comes to contracting.
The UAE enacted a new Federal Law No. 38 of 2021 concerning copyright and neighboring rights (New Law) that replaced the old Federal Law No. 7 of 2002 (Old Law) and came into force in January 2022. The New Law provides a clearer framework in an increasing digital environment for businesses.
The UK’s Law Commission (the Commission) published a consultation paper on July 28, 2022, proposing certain reforms to private property law in relation to digital assets, which was in response to the UK government requesting the Commission to ensure that the law can accommodate digital assets as they continue to evolve and expand. The Commission acknowledged the increasingly important role digital assets play and that property rights are key for the proper characterization of novel and complex legal relationships involving digital assets.
On August 19, Russian State Duma member Andrey Kuznetsov introduced a bill on compulsory licensing of copyrights that allows the courts to approve compulsory licenses for content and other copyrightable objects not available in Russia.
On July 18, 2022, the UK government published high-level proposals for its approach to regulating uses of artificial intelligence (AI), as part of its National AI Strategy and, more broadly, its UK Digital Strategy. The government is seeking public views on the approach, which is contained in a policy paper; a more detailed White Paper will be published in late 2022.