Software Escrow: An enterprise resiliency tool every legal department should have in their toolbox (with Don Dennis Jr.)
IP|Trend: Discovering Source Code
The battle between open source software developers and the leading AI code generators will rage on. Despite the Court dismissing Plaintiffs’ Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) Section 1202(b) claims with prejudice, it...more
In Fiskars Finland OY AB v. Woodland Tools Inc., 2024 WL 2504717 (W.D. Wisc. May 24, 2024), plaintiff sued for alleged misappropriation of trade secrets. Defendants counterclaimed....more
Understanding how hardware and firmware/software work together to perform desired functions or tasks is an important enabler to unlocking the value of intellectual properties in the systems (including embedded systems) area....more
According to Statista*, in 2020 computer technology patents made up the majority of patent applications in the U.S., totalling approximately 60,000 patents. In 2022, Unified Patents** found that software, hardware, and...more
Mercedes-Benz reportedly suffered a security incident that exposed confidential source code on an Enterprise Git server. The incident occurred due to a compromised GitHub exposed by an employee. Although the incident occurred...more
Generally, an employer owns all rights in software code created by its employee in the scope of their employment. As outlined in the last edition of this series, this general rule typically applies to independent contractors...more
The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit granted a writ of mandamus ordering the transfer of a case, finding that the district court’s denial of the motion to transfer “was so patently erroneous” that the extreme measure...more
The Federal Circuit is charged with disposing of the mandamus petitions that regularly arise from decisions denying transfer under 28 U.S.C. § 1404(a) in Texas patent litigation. The Fifth Circuit, whose law the Federal...more
Proprietary source code can be one of the most valuable assets a company has, and with the introduction of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), the creation and evolution of source code has increased at an exponential...more
On September 27, 2023, FDA finalized its guidance entitled “Cybersecurity in Medical Devices: Quality System Considerations and Content of Premarket Submissions” (the “2023 Final Guidance”). The Final Guidance replaces...more
The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) has amended the Export Administration Regulation’s (EAR) definition of “release” so that it does not apply to the provision of access information that would unlock “object code”...more
The meta description is a snippet of up to about 160 characters, which summarizes a page’s content. Meta descriptions don’t appear on the page itself, but only in the page’s source code. Search engines such as Google often...more
Companies (including through the use of AI) are increasingly reliant on open source software to expedite their software development. A recent case filed in California, SFC v. Vizio, calls upon the state court to interpret two...more
In Part 1 of this article, I addressed various legal issues that can arise with AI-based code generators. Many of these problems stem from using open source to train the models and the compliance obligations imposed by the...more
AI-based code generators are a powerful application of generative AI. These tools leverage AI to assist code developers by using AI models to auto-complete or suggest code based on developer inputs or tests. These tools raise...more
Roblox recently announced that it is working on generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools that will help developers who build experiences on Roblox, to more easily create games and assets. The first two test tools create...more
While not new, the use of “open data” is on the rise as teams everywhere look for existing low-cost datasets to facilitate their projects without the need to personally incur the time, expense and internal approval process of...more
As a previous Wilson Sonsini Alert reported, Snail Games USA Inc. and Wildcard Properties LLC (collectively, “Snail”) sent a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown notice to Valve Corporation (Valve) in order to...more
Below are some of the best features you can leverage for your law firm to get more real estate on a Google search result (SERP). More real estate can equal more impressions and more potential clients visiting your site....more
In a previous article, Litigating Spoliation Claims in Trade Secret Cases, we discussed the rise of spoliation in trade secret and restrictive covenant cases. In that article, we provided background on trade secret laws and...more
Blockchains are the Doritos Locos Taco of computer science. Complex as software can become, there are a limited number of tools available to software developers. Software developers combine arrays, databases, objects,...more
Non-profit organizations often use third-party images, photos, videos, or software in their everyday operations. It is often beneficial to leverage such materials that are licensed under “open licenses” because they are free...more
As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues, the White House countered with another wave of sanctions and export controls. Building on the restrictions discussed in our Phase I and Phase II alerts, these new measures further...more
Due to the size and complexity of computer code, the software is usually created by a team of programmers. Consequently, to fully own software one must first make sure that each of the developers has relinquished any...more
In today’s digital age, the question isn’t whether there is open source software being used in a company’s products, but how it is being used and what license governs its use. Open source is ubiquitous. Despite its...more