Technology Transactions
ArentFox Schiff’s Technology Transactions team helps clients utilize legal services to solve business problems and maximize opportunities.
Technology-related deals can be as complex as the products involved. Whether the transaction is an acquisition, a licensing agreement, a joint venture, a strategic alliance, or another arrangement, we help our clients protect and monetize their technological and intellectual property assets. We rely on our sophisticated corporate, intellectual property, commercial, and cybersecurity experience to approach these transactions from both a business and technical perspective. Our team includes attorneys who have science and technical degrees and have previously worked at technology companies.
Our clients span the spectrum from start-ups to industry leaders. We are well-versed in transactions involving consumer goods, retail, online services, information technology, electronics, telecommunications, energy, food and beverage, medical devices, and financial services.
We have recognized strength in Health Care IT, Education IT, and in handling combined IT and IP transactions. We routinely advise clients where technology is directly integrated into new business models, such as FinTech, RetailTech, FashionTech, AdTech, and artificial intelligence. We also regularly engage with more creative or artistic intellectual property such as fine arts, music, web content, designs, publishing, and media and entertainment.
Our Work
We combine our technology and IP experience to provide high-quality legal services. We help clients commercialize products and services and structure effective collaborations and vendor relationships. We advise companies regarding licensing, cloud services, data protection, commercial agreements, and technology transactions. We leverage our experience in these areas to meet our clients’ evolving business needs, gain competitive advantage, mitigate risk, comply with regulations, and cultivate productive relationships with customers, vendors, and business partners. In addition to our proficiency in technology and technology law, we are seasoned and pragmatic deal attorneys skilled at structuring, negotiating, and finalizing complex transactions.
We also help clients comply with regulatory regimes applicable to the development, use, and deployment of their technology, including advising on contractual terms required to meet compliance requirements, and address legal and business risks.
Our technology transactions lawyers collaborate with other core practices at the firm on the information technology and intellectual property aspects of larger public and private corporate transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures, financings, and restructurings. We routinely work in conjunction with our corporate, venture capital, and private equity teams on transaction matters, including the negotiation and preparation of technology transfer agreements and intellectual property ownership strategies.
We are a destination firm for the following technology transactions:
- Information Technology: We regularly draft and negotiate agreements relating to the procurement and use of hardware and information technology, including Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), and hardware agreements. Our team has substantial experience, from the perspective of the client as well as the developer, in negotiating and drafting agreements for the development, implementation, license, and support of software and online platforms.
- Licensing: We prepare and negotiate agreements for licensing and transferring rights in patents, trademarks, copyrights, content, data, and trade secrets across a wide range of commercial and technical fields.
- Data: Our team has extensive experience in drafting and negotiating agreements relating to the warehousing, mining, transfer, and protection of all types of content and data, including distributor agreements, data and content licenses, data analytic agreements, API agreements, and telecom agreements.
- Consulting Services: We draft and negotiate agreements involving a wide range of consulting, R&D, implementation, training, and support services concerning information technology and intellectual property resources, including custom and mobile application development.
- Cloud Services: This is a key component in modern IT systems. We regularly handle agreements involving SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS offerings and online hosting via public, private, and hybrid clouds.
- Commercial Agreements: We routinely assist clients with the structuring and negotiation of technology-related commercial arrangements, including distribution agreements, implementation agreements, terms of sale, terms of use, manufacturing and supply agreements, and OEM and value-added reseller agreements.
- Ecommerce: Our team advises on a wide range of issues relating to the internet and online services, including compliance, electronic contracting, cybersquatting, mobile applications, open-source software, cloud computing, social media, AdTech, website development, and hosting. We frequently draft and negotiate web terms and end user agreements for online services.
- Artificial Intelligence: We advise clients on the development and protection of artificial intelligence (AI) models and machine learning and regularly advise on issues relating to agreements and policies for usage of AI and generated content.
- Vendor Management and Cybersecurity: We assist clients in evaluating cybersecurity measures and negotiating contractual provisions with IT vendors to protect against data breaches and satisfy statutory requirements.
- Outsourcing: Our experience in representing both users and providers allows us to effectively assist clients in structuring and negotiating outsourcing arrangements and in managing the risk inherent in delegating important business and technical functions to a third party.
- Telecommunications Transactions: Our attorneys address the regulatory and telecommunications aspects of technology-focused transactions.
- Health Care IT: Our combination of IT and Health Care experience allows us to handle the highest level of transactional work and counseling for Health Care institutions and medical device manufacturers.
- Higher Education IT: We routinely help higher education institutions to commercialize and license technology and to comply with associated regulatory requirements.
