Tech & Sourcing @ Morgan Lewis

You signed a deal with the US subsidiary of an India-based service provider, and the Indian parent issued a guaranty. Several years later, you are now amending the original master services agreement (MSA) to add to the scope or extend the term, and you are faced with the question of whether you need the guarantor to reconfirm that the guaranty continues in effect to the MSA, as amended— the best course of action is that you do.

When a company desires to develop technology, it has two options: develop the technology in-house by its employees, or contract with a third-party developer to develop the technology. Any time a company contracts with a third party to develop technology for the company, one of the key issues in the agreement should be allocation of intellectual property ownership.

The UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has recently handed down two of the largest fines relating to a data breach in UK history.

The US Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) recently issued an advisory to remind US businesses about some aspects of ransomware scams and attacks.

The use of aggregated data by technology service providers is quite common in today’s landscape, and something that even traditionally cautious customers have become amenable to in the right circumstances and subject to proper limitations.

An annual survey found that the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has influenced decisions made by state chief information officers (CIOs) in 2020 in all areas addressed by the survey. The 2020 State CIO Survey (the Survey) released by the National Association of State Chief Information Officers, Grant Thornton Public Sector LLC and CompTIA (Sponsoring Organizations) was conducted several weeks after the start of COVID-19 and includes the responses from 47 state and territory CIOs.

In a recent post, we addressed the US Department of Justice’s recent recommendations to reform Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA) to provide incentives for online platforms to address illicit material on their platforms, and the Platform Accountability and Consumer Transparency Act (PACT), legislation proposed by two US senators that is also aimed at reforming Section 230 of the CDA.

Information Services Group (ISG) reported that the global outsourcing industry is slowly recovering from the industry’s dip in performance during the second quarter of 2020 due to the coronavirus (COVID-19). Data measuring commercial outsourcing contracts with annual contract values (ACV) of $5 million or more show that third-quarter ACV for the global market rose 3% to $14.6 billion.

The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) recently released a report titled “Public Views on Artificial Intelligence and Intellectual Property Policy,” which addresses the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on various intellectual property (IP) regimes. Per the USPTO’s press release announcing the report, the report “represents the agency’s firm commitment to keeping pace with this rapidly changing and critical technology.”

We are kicking off our Tech & Sourcing webinar series on October 13 with our first event, Service Engagements and Business Continuity: A Fresh Look. Morgan Lewis partners Barbara Melby and Michael Pillion will address the evolving approaches in services engagements, including how to address and allocate responsibility for unanticipated business interruptions and business continuity requirements.