We are pleased to share that Art Beeman recently participated in the “Five Minute Update”, an episodic podcast site on intellectual property licensing, hosted by David Powsner and sponsored by the Licensing Executives Society / USA-Canda. The topic of the podcast was Business Software Trolls with an emphasis on how using business planning software and the Cloud can often lead to software licensing disputes.
It is no secret that software audits are on the rise, and software agreements have been weaponized across the board. In this podcast, Art shares his insights about this reality and how to best navigate the tricky world of managing software license agreements.
These software agreements, because the technology is so ubiquitous, virtually everyone is using it in some form or fashion. And then you have the agreements that have been in place literally for decades that haven’t been able to catch up with certain technology (by way of example, virtualization technology, cloud technology). It results in, let’s just say, creative contentions on the part of vendors as to what is included within the license agreement and what’s not, what should be counted and what should not be counted.
The good part is … it’s just like anything having to do with your health: consult with the appropriate specialists, alright? There are good technical firms, there are good law firms in this space. And I think the clients, or I should say the businesses, that get themselves into trouble try to go it alone, and they don’t appreciate just how hazardous all this can be and what a risk it is for their business.
When it was brought up that this is certainly a depressing situation, Art replied:
It’s depressing if you take certain routes or paths. There is leverage to be had here.
For the full podcast, you can listen here.
Published on 3/8/2022
Software licensors are known for vague contracts—they’ve made a business of it.
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