Tech & Sourcing @ Morgan Lewis

Autorenewal provisions (sometimes referred to as evergreen provisions) are common in commercial agreements for the provision of technology and related services. Vendors may want their agreements to autorenew to save time negotiating new contracts and to continue the customer relationship. Customers often desire to terminate an agreement, thinking they have the right to do so, only to realize the term of the agreement has been automatically renewed for another year or number of years.

There are often misconceptions in connection with negotiating intellectual property (IP) development agreements with developers located in Russia. This post details five common misconceptions and provides tips for complying with applicable laws in connection with such agreements.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) on May 10 published final guidelines on outsourcing to cloud service providers (ESMA Guidelines) to help firms and competent authorities identify, address, and monitor the risks and challenges arising from cloud outsourcing arrangements. Subject to a few clarifications, the ESMA Guidelines are broadly consistent with the draft guidelines.

In a recent Lawflash, our colleagues Ken Kulak and Ariel Braunstein reported that at the Leaders Summit on Climate, hosted by the Biden-Harris administration on April 22 and 23 in Washington, DC, President Joseph Biden set aggressive goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the United States and set forth his aim to encourage the investment in and use of new green technology and to explore pollution reduction strategies.

Picking up where we left off on April 6, below are some additional key issues to consider and address when negotiating an application purchase agreement.

When negotiating a digital health collaboration agreement between a tech company and a life sciences company, whether for the development of artificial intelligence or other software, the provision of data hosting and analysis services, or a more complex collaboration, the parties should consider the following.

The UK Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) published a policy statement (PS7/21) and a supervisory statement (SS2/21) on clarifying and modernizing regulatory expectations of outsourcing and third-party risk management on March 29. The expectations in PS7/21 and SS2/21 are relevant to banks, PRA-designated investment firms, insurers, and branches of overseas banks and insurers and apply not just to “outsourcing” but also non-outsourcing material or high-risk service arrangements. The expectations apply at a legal entity level rather than at a group level (save for expectations on intragroup arrangements).

The purchase of applications (or apps) is a comprehensive arrangement that includes the transfer of a variety of rights and assets, including intellectual property (IP) rights, software, human resources, equipment, and infrastructure, as well as the transfer of related contracts, accounts, and data. In this Contract Corner, we highlight key considerations for developing an application purchase agreement.

The United Kingdom’s Digital Regulation Cooperation Forum (DRCF) on March 10 announced in its 2021–2022 workplan that the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) will join as a full member from April 1, 2021.

Morgan Lewis partners Mike Pierides and Andrew J. Gray IV and associate Oliver Bell recently presented a webinar, Bias Issues and AI, as part of the Artificial Intelligence Boot Camp series.