U.S. companies spend billions of dollars a year on licensing technology. Licensees (buyers and users) often engage in technology relationships for critical day-to-day operations including manufacturing payroll, heath care, customer relationship management (CRM), database, etc. However inherent to every technology license agreement is a level of risk. What if the licensor (developer or vendor) defaults on its support contract? What if they go out of business? What's more, technology licensors (suppliers, developers or vendors), often find that sales cycles are stalled as buyers vent these concerns, begging the question, why don't licensors routinely offer customers some kind of security as part of their standard contracts? How does this risk impact your exclusive supply agreements and software/web site development agreements?

Attorneys can help reduce risk for their clients, whether licensees or licensors, through a solid technology escrow agreement. This two-part webcast will give you the information you need to help your clients reduce risk and will offer best practices for implementing a successful technology escrow program.

Part I - Technology Escrow Basics
During the first 30 minutes of this webcast, the speakers will provide fundamentals of technology escrow:

• Why today's information society is exposed to risk.
• What is technology escrow?
• Why do licensees (buyers/users) need it?
• Why does a licensor (vendor/developer) need it?

Part II - Advanced Technology Escrow
The second half of this session will cover more advanced topics including:

• What are the key issues that I can address to minimize client risk when licensing Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications?
• What are the challenges or risks surrounding off-shore development and licensing?
• What are the challenges or risks surrounding exclusive supply agreements?
• Why and when should I recommend verification of the content of an escrow deposit?
• Escrow and verification service case studies.

View this webcast

Featured Speakers:

John Boruvka,
Vice President, Intellectual Property Management, Iron Mountain Digital
John Boruvka has been involved in the technology escrow field for more than 19 years. His focus is helping companies create solutions relating to protecting intellectual property assets. Mr. Boruvka has participated in the development of strategies and review of thousands of technology escrow agreements for software, hardware and other proprietary information that established to protect against mergers, bankruptcies or other events that affect the ability of vendors to support their technology.

Tim Cummins,
President and Executive Director, International Association for Contract and Commercial Management
Tim Cummins works with leading corporations, public and academic bodies, supporting executive awareness and understanding of the role that Commitment Management increasingly play in 21st century business performance and public policy. Prior to IACCM, Tim's business career included executive roles at IBM and a period on the Chairman's staff, leading studies on the impacts of globalization and the reengineering of IBM's global contracting processes. His earlier career involved the banking, automotive and aerospace industries, initially in Corporate Finance and later in commercial and business development. He led negotiations up to $1.5bn in value and his work has taken him to over 40 countries. Tim's work has been extensively published and he has acted in an advisory capacity to government bodies in countries that include the US, UK, Australia, Canada and Japan.

Jason Anderman,
Corporate Counsel, Becton, Dickinson and Company
Jason Mark Anderman serves as counsel at Becton, Dickinson and Company. Previously, Mr. Anderman practiced at the law firms of Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker and Goodwin Procter and Vice Chair of the ACC Law Department Management Committee. Mr. Anderman's practice has included providing general advice to business units comprising several hundred million dollars of revenue annually, managing procurement agreements for a diverse array of goods and services, negotiating life sciences and diagnostic instrument sales transactions, providing health privacy law advice, as well as facilitating litigation and dispute management. Mr. Anderman currently co-chairs the Law Department Purchasing Consortium's Procurement Group, and serves as Vice-Chair of the Association of Corporate Counsel's Law Department Management Committee. Mr. Anderman graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1992 from Washington University in St. Louis. He received his J.D. and M.A. (Cultural Anthropology) degrees from Duke University School of Law and Graduate School, respectively, in 1997.