Computer Software & Hardware

Overview

In the area of computer software and hardware, we counsel owners, developers, distributors, licensees and others in a wide range of computer issues, spanning a host of business transactions and commercial disputes.  For example, we provide practical and timely advice regarding:

  • The identification, protection, commercialization and enforcement of intellectual property rights in computer software and hardware
  • Preparation of a wide variety of software development agreements, including joint development initiatives
  • Conventional software distribution, sale and license agreements for both off-the-shelf and custom applications
  • Innovative software license and distribution agreements, including ASP, "cloud computing", Software as a Service ("SaaS") and Free/Open Source models
  • Software maintenance, service and source code escrow agreements
  • The latest laws relating to computer database protections
  • Computer hardware OEM, sale, license, lease and maintenance agreements
  • The acquisition, sale and license of computer hardware, systems and networks, including integrated hardware/software transactions
  • All relevant e-commerce considerations


Our software clients range from small concerns to large publicly-held and span a wide spectrum of applications and models, including CAD, CAM, CRM, SCM, ERP, PLM, KM and ASPs.

Name
Title
Contact
Peter J. Davis
Partner
Emailpdavis@whitefordlaw.com
410.347.8738
Slaven Jesic
Counsel
Emailsjesic@whitefordlaw.com
980.242.5002
S. Keith Moulsdale
Partner
Emailskmoulsdale@whitefordlaw.com
410.347.8721
Steven E. Tiller
Partner
Emailstiller@whitefordlaw.com
410.347.9425

The Agent Can Bind the Company. Decide Whose Authority It Spends.

The engineering team wants an AI coding agent working in the repository. Procurement wants a buying agent that can request quotes and place orders under a dollar limit. Both teams will tell you the agent "just assists." And both, almost in the same breath, will ask that it keep working when nobody is at the keyboard.

That second request is the one that should bring counsel into the room. An assistant that waits for a person to click "send" is a productivity tool. An agent that acts on its own, with the company's credentials, is spending somebody's authority. The legal question is whose, and whether anyone wrote down how much.

Quantum Computing Is a Present-Tense Governance Issue: A General Counsel’s Roadmap for Privacy, Security and Compliance

Quantum computing poses an unusual problem for general counsel: the deadline is uncertain, but waiting for certainty may itself create material risk.

No publicly known quantum computer can presently defeat the public-key cryptography on which modern commerce depends. The timing of a “cryptographically relevant” quantum computer remains contested. Yet adversaries do not need to wait. They can collect encrypted information today and attempt to decrypt it later—a strategy commonly called “harvest now, decrypt later.” At the same time, large organizations may need years to locate cryptography embedded across applications, cloud services, connected products, operational technology, certificates, digital signatures, and third-party platforms.

AI Regulation is Moving from Models to Moments

An AI system does not have one legal identity.

A model that summarizes internal meetings may present familiar privacy, security and contract questions. Connect the same model to a hiring score, credit decision, insurance recommendation or patient interaction, and the analysis changes. Put it in a public chatbot used by minors, and a different set of concerns appears. Use it to generate images or audio, and disclosure and provenance rules may matter.

This is the most useful way to read the emerging state AI patchwork: the legal unit of analysis is not the model. It is the moment when the system interacts with a person, influences a decision or produces an output that the law treats differently.