Tech & Sourcing @ Morgan Lewis

TECHNOLOGY TRANSACTIONS, OUTSOURCING, AND COMMERCIAL CONTRACTS NEWS FOR LAWYERS AND SOURCING PROFESSIONALS
The widespread technology outage on July 19, 2024 highlighted major potential issues that can arise when service providers rely on technology to provide critical services. The effects of the outage were felt by critical service providers across numerous industries, including airlines, banks, public transit, healthcare, and media. Because we live in a world that is increasingly reliant on technology, if a critical piece of technology fails or introduces a flaw to a system that relies on that particular technology, it can have extreme consequences, as many experienced on July 19.
Telemarketing has long been a favored method for businesses to reach potential clients. However, with the significant evolution of data privacy and consumer protection laws, telemarketing is now intertwined with numerous legal challenges and concerns.
In Part 1 of our series on Text-to-Speech AI Models (TTS Models), we highlighted questions that should be considered from an intellectual property perspective. In this Part 2, we provide a high-level overview of data protection concerns of which to be aware. Given the specific nature of the product source—voice being the core element of input and output data for TTS Models—it is crucial to be mindful of data protection requirements, especially in an era of heightened attention to privacy rights.
Text-to-speech AI models (TTS Models) are rapidly evolving within the broader spectrum of AI solutions, offering tremendous potential for businesses. These models can analyze text and speech as well as generate anything from simple sounds to high-quality, natural-sounding speech, which capability makes TTS models highly appealing for commercial use, including use in connection with virtual assistants, audiobooks, elearning platforms, and customer service functions.
Expanding a business into new markets presents a myriad of challenges, and companies should evaluate and consider financial plans, marketing strategies, operational issues, and corresponding legal implications in connection with any such expansion.
There are many issues for companies to address when contracting for the manufacture and supply of automotive industry products. In this blog post, we highlight several of these key considerations.
In this blog post we explore build-operate-transfer (BOT) models in relation to businesses setting up offshore delivery centers, commonly becoming known as Global Capability Centers (GCCs).
Starting January 17, 2025, financial entities based in the European Union must have in place processes and policies, as well as mandatory contract provisions with their third-party technology vendors, that comply with the EU’s Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA). Financial entities are currently at varying stages of updating their operational risk management frameworks and remediating contracts with technology vendors. For banks, the European Central Bank has signaled that resiliency will be a top priority on its supervisory agenda.
Contract Corner
A significant number of legacy software solutions are now incorporating generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), and most new software solutions have some form of GenAI capabilities. This is true across the majority of, if not all, industries and, as such, it is not surprising that we are seeing a large increase in GenAI-related queries from businesses that use, or are procuring, software.
Contract Corner
In part one, we discussed key considerations for the possible inclusion of commercial contract provisions affording a party with excusal/relief from liability for nonperformance of an obligation that it otherwise would have been required to perform under the agreement (relief provision).