Too often, contract rights bargained and paid for in negotiations are eroded during governance. This podcast describes seven tips for governing service provider relationships in ways that leverage or strengthen contract rights. Reg Goeke, who leads our Commercial Litigation practice, provides a litigator’s perspective and Brad Peterson, who leads our Technology Transactions practice, provides a sourcing lawyer’s perspective.

Non-fungible tokens, commonly called “NFTs,” have been around for some time, but they have only hit mainstream public consciousness over the past few years. With the speculative frenzy around NFTs seemingly at an all-time high, it can be difficult to sift through the noise and identify the real use cases, and accompanying issues, that companies need to be aware of.  Mayer Brown partners Richard Assmus and Rohith George and host Julian Dibbell will decipher these digital assets, explore a few of the legal issues surrounding them and discuss some of the steps companies need to consider as they look to leverage NFTs as part of their business strategy.

This episode focuses on an IP right at the heart of many technology deals—copyrights. Mayer Brown partners Richard Assmus and Oliver Yaros and host Julian Dibbell will discuss some recent important changes in US and European copyright law and how those changes might inform your tech deals.

In contracts, parties typically seek to limit their liability to each other, both in terms of the types of damages or actions for which a party will have liability and the amount of damages that can be recovered, as well as, in certain cases, the remedies that can be pursued. The parties often negotiate exceptions from these limitations, including for gross negligence or willful misconduct. During this podcast, Chris Houpt, Linda Rhodes and Anja Watt along with host Julian Dibbell will examine the definitions of gross negligence and willful misconduct, recent court holdings on the ability of contracting parties to limit liability and the implications for contracts. For purposes of this podcast, we focus on New York law, commonly selected as the governing law in contracts.

In the 2022 edition of our long-running annual podcast, partners in Mayer Brown’s Technology Transactions practice will discuss trends that will drive and shape technology transactions. This year’s program will focus on convergence of cloud, AI and data; innovation through new and complex collaborations; continued change in cybersecurity and privacy laws and priorities; increasing focus on sustainable digital business practices; and emerging technologies that seem poised to drive technology transactions in future years. 

Businesses today are data driven and data dependent, but the rules that govern how data can be used and shared across borders are becoming increasingly tricky for international organizations to navigate, subject to constantly evolving and often conflicting requirements in each region. None more so than in Europe, where changes over the past 18 months—including updated versions of the EU’s Standard Contractual Clauses for cross-border data transfer—have raised new sets of questions for organizations seeking to comply with the rules for moving personal data from Europe to places like the United States. In this special National Cybersecurity Awareness Month episode, partners Vivek Mohan and Oliver Yaros along with host Julian Dibbell discuss these changes and a few things businesses can do to stay on top of them.

Competition among cloud platform providers is fierce as they scramble for market share and customers. As cloud providers bundle key products and services—such as AI and other tools—with their “basic” cloud offerings to lure and retain cloud customers, they are also offering other benefits through “strategic partnerships” with customers. In a strategic partnership, a cloud provider collaborates with the customer to provide new services or industry platforms and even joint “go-to-market” opportunities utilizing data and industry expertise from the customer. Cloud + Strategic Partnerships resemble joint ventures in many respects but without forming a jointly-owned legal entity. While a Cloud + Strategic Partnership may provide many advantages to cloud customers, there are a number of important issues to consider before entering into such a relationship. Join Mayer Brown partners Rebecca Eisner, Rohith George and Brad Peterson and host Julian Dibbell as they discuss how to achieve the customer’s business and legal objectives in a Cloud + Strategic Partnership with a cloud provider.