IT Contracts - 2022 Conference

Introduction

This conference chaired by Mark Weston examines a range of topical issues. The panel of leading experts will discuss topics from open source software to data breaches.

Conference Agenda

This Conference will cover the following:

9.30am - 10.15am Opening Address: Open Source Software: From 1960 to 2022

Mark Weston, Hill Dickinson LLP

In the last 20 years, open source software (OSS) has become mainstream and even the primary source of software used by businesses. How did this happen and where are we in 2022?

This session explains the rise of open source software, where we have been, where we are and where we are going, as well as looking at the two most popular OSS licences in use in 2022.

This session will cover the following:

• The rise of OSS
• Concepts from history
• OSD
• The trajectory or OSS today: 2022
• OSS as an industry: 2022
• Most popular OSS licences in 2022
• MIT
• GPL

10.15am - 11.00am Data Breaches - The Critical Issues

Jimmy Desai, Keystone Law

Data breaches are becoming more common. There are the well reported cases of British Airways and Marriot where both were fined. In the case of British Airways the fine was £183 million which was later reduced to £20 million. In the case of Marriot the fine was £99 million which was later reduced to £18.4 million.

This session will cover:

• What do IT contracts say about data loss?
• What do customers fear about data loss?
• How can customers protect themselves contractually and practically against data loss?
• What happens if there is a data breach and data loss?
• What are the fines likely to be?
• What can you learn from recent caselaw?

Morning break for refreshments

11.15am - 12.00pm SaaS Contracts - The Legal Traps & How to Deal with Them

Jimmy Desai, Keystone Law

In the past many companies often used to buy software or licence IT for many years, with 5 or 10 year IT deals being fairly common. However, this kind of deal led to problems because companies were often then locked into long term contracts which restricted them in how they could develop their businesses.

Things have now moved on so that many companies prefer entering into Software as a Service (SaaS) contracts whereby they essentially rent the software on a relatively short term basis which rolls over on a monthly or quarterly basis and where the company can cancel on short notice.

However, these types of contracts can come with hidden costs and liabilities which this session will explore.

This session will cover:

• What is a SaaS contract? How does it differ from other types of IT contract such as software licensing and maintenance contracts?
• Why do customers choose SaaS contracts?
• What clauses should you look out for in SaaS contracts in terms of limiting your client’s risk?
• What clauses are often left out of SaaS contracts but which you should ask to be added?
• What practical considerations should you think about before entering into a SaaS contract?

12.00pm - 12.45pm Critical & Contested Clauses in IT Contracts

Lizzie Williams, Harbottle & Lewis

This session will consider the most important clauses in IT contracts and will cover:

• The most hotly negotiated and contentious clauses in IT contracts
• What transactional lawyers mean and intend when drafting those clauses and set that against how the Courts interpret them, drawing out common misconceptions
• The impact which those pivotal clauses could have on prospects of success, financial recovery and liability by reference to real life examples and case studies

12.45 - 1.00pm Questions on Morning Session

Lunchbreak

2.00pm - 2.50pm When It Goes Wrong - Avoidance & Resolution

Robin Somerville

IT contracts have the potential to flare up into nasty, expensive, protracted and at times disabling disputes.

This session considers how to avoid or resolve IT disputes when IT contracts go wrong and will cover:

• Real life IT disputes
• Common themes behind IT disputes
• IT dispute avoidance strategies
• Dispute resolution clauses in IT contracts
• The dangers of litigating IT disputes

Afternoon break for refreshments

3.15pm - 4.00pm 2022 IT Warranties & Terms - What Are We Seeing?

Mark Weston, Hill Dickinson LLP

Software contracts and licences have not changed much since the early 1970s. Where they have changed in the last 20 years is in the new IT issues that software vendors and customers are most concerned about in terms of managing the new risks involved.

This session examines newer IT warranties from malware, viruses, worms and ransomware to the issues raised by the move globally to IPv6, along the way taking in ongoing issues caused by our wonderful Gregorian calendar as implemented in software to programming currency issues and sizing warranties which bridge the gap between customer expectations and supplier caution.

This session will cover:

• Anti-virus clauses
• Comms clauses and the move to IPv6
• Date issues and clauses
• Currency clauses: the reverse Euro and historic data issue
• Sizing warranties and scalability issues

4.00pm - Close Questions & Answers