Tech & Sourcing @ Morgan Lewis

Investment in UK technology companies continues apace, with 2021 marking another record year. The UK government announced in December 2021 that the UK tech sector achieved its “best year ever” in 2021 through investments totaling £29.4 billion, with record IPO capital raising and 37% of all funding coming from the United States. The United Kingdom is creating on average almost one $1 billion “unicorn” technology business a week, primarily fintechs followed by healthtech and enterprise software businesses.

The UK government is considering responses to its proposed reforms to auto-subscription rules for consumer contracts, as part of a broader consultation on reforming UK competition and consumer policy.

The Intellectual Property Office (IPO) in the United Kingdom just closed a consultation on policy options for changes to patent and copyright legislation to better protect technology created by artificial intelligence (AI).

Many organizations have longstanding sustainability initiatives for reducing waste through efforts such as recycling or reductions in printing. However, organizations are now also looking to their use of technology to help improve the sustainability of their operations.

Morgan Lewis's website, morganlewis.com, has been redesigned with a new look and tools to make it easier to access and leverage information about the firm.  One-click navigation takes users directly to landing pages for Our Practice, Our Thinking, and Our Firm, where you can explore events and webinars, blogs and other publications, trending topics, and more. You can also learn more about our commitment to Diversity & Inclusion, community engagement, and pro bono services.

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has held in Case C-410/19 The Software Incubator Ltd v Computer Associates (UK) Ltd that the supply of software by electronic means, where accompanied by the grant of a perpetual user license in return for a fee, could constitute a “sale of goods” for the purpose of defining a commercial agent under the EU Commercial Agents Directive (the Directive).

Companies are transforming legacy systems, implementing automation and artificial intelligence tools, embedding digital capabilities into their products, shifting to cloud solutions and leveraging technology to better connect to their customers, personnel, and third parties, all at an unprecedented pace. The focus on businesses to get to market faster, reach a broader audience and provide real-time interaction has in turn put pressure on legal and sourcing documents to keep up. The complexity and volume of the numbers of projects (and contracts) can be daunting — especially for companies that have not yet elevated the importance of the technology law function within their organizations.

The Board of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) has published a set of revised outsourcing principles for regulated entities. IOSCO is an international policy forum for securities regulators and a global standard-setter for securities regulation whose membership regulates more than 95% of the world's securities markets.

During the last year, we have seen a significant shift to “as a service” models and cloud solutions, as well as heightened attention on outsourcing as a strategic business tool to enable scalability, improved service, and accelerated access to in-demand technology and resources. This increased reliance on vendor performance to enable business operations has underscored the importance of implementing a solid service level methodology in order to: establish performance metrics that align with the customer’s expectations and business requirements; measure, monitor, and report performance against the metrics; set out the remedies for service level defaults, including service level credits and termination rights; and agree to events that may excuse performance resulting in missed service levels.

The Chancery Lane Project, a UK-based nonprofit network of legal professionals, has published a “Net Zero Toolkit” to help organizations achieve net zero goals. The toolkit includes 100 “climate clauses” aligned with the 2015 Paris Agreement goals.