Licensing & Technology Transfer

Overview

Sophisticated clients realize that one or more intangible property rights invariably underlie almost any tangible object. Our Technology and Intellectual Property attorneys have a wealth of experience in successfully helping clients to leverage their rights in such copyrights, patents, trade secrets, trade dress, trademarks and other intellectual property assets by means of a wide array of both traditional and innovative license, distribution and transfer models in a broad number of fields, including software, services, games and entertainment, telecommunications, life sciences and data imaging.

For example, our attorneys stand ready to provide practical and timely assistance in connection with structuring, drafting and negotiating:

  • Copyright, patent, trade secret, trade dress and trademark license and sale agreements
  • Conventional software license, distribution and sale agreements
  • Open Source license and distribution agreements
  • Software maintenance, support and service level agreements (SLAs)
  • Software as a Service (SaaS) and other cloud computing arrangements
  • End User License Agreements (EULAs)
  • Non-disclosure agreements

Name
Title
Contact
Peter J. Davis
Partner
Emailpdavis@whitefordlaw.com
410.347.8738
Slaven Jesic
Counsel
Emailsjesic@whitefordlaw.com
980.242.5002
Frank S. Jones, Jr.
Partner
Emailfjones@whitefordlaw.com
410.347.8707
S. Keith Moulsdale
Partner
Emailskmoulsdale@whitefordlaw.com
410.347.8721

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.

AI in the Deal Room: Why Intellectual Property Diligence Matters More in Acquisitions of AI-Enabled Products

Acquirers are increasingly looking at businesses whose products use AI, depend on AI, or sit close enough to AI that the buyer expects future value from data, automation, software or model-enabled workflows. The target may not be an “AI company” in the headline sense. It may be a medical-device company using machine-learning outputs in a diagnostic workflow, a software platform embedding generative AI in a user interface, a manufacturer using computer vision in quality control, a services business with proprietary datasets and automation, or a consumer brand relying on AI-created marketing assets.