IT Law

There is actually no such thing as information technology (IT) law. Unlike most other legal fields, there is hardly any specialized legislation that addresses solely the law of information technology. Instead, IT law seizes upon a variety of existing laws to regulate our ever-expanding world of information technology. Thus, the good old German Civil Code is just as much a part of IT law as is the Commercial Code, the Copyright Act, the Copyright Act for Works of Art, the Trademark Act, the Act against Restraints of Competition, the Patent Act, the Criminal Code, the Federal Data Protection Agency Act, the Fiscal Code, etc. All of these laws also have significance – or even paramount significance – for other fields of law. Yet it is precisely these points of intersection with all areas of business law as well as the technical and corporate strategy parameters that create the allure and challenge of providing advice and structuring contracts in IT law, whether such work involves software licenses, software maintenance, software implementation, ERP projects, software distribution, hosting, outsourcing, cloud computing, SaaS, PaaS, IaaS, ASP, IT-Compliance or the Internet. Having gathered experience from a myriad of client matters over numerous years, we work first and foremost in the following areas of IT law and would be happy to advise you as well in these areas:  

Software contracts

  • Software licenses
  • Software support / software maintenance
  • Partner distribution (reseller, OEM, VAR)
  • Clarification of copyright and licensing law questions
  • Open source software

Project contracts

  • SAP projects / ERP projects
  • Software implementation
  • Software development (based on waterfall model or agile project methods)
  • Legal advice on project disruptions

Outsourcing contracts

  • IT outsourcing / out-tasking
  • Hosting
  • ASP, SaaS, PaaS, IaaS
  • Cloud Computing

Data protection

  • Commissioned data processing
  • User tracking
  • Case-by-case review of data protection law issues

Corporate acquisitions

  • Implementation of the due diligence examination of IT contracts
  • Clarification of issues arising under copyright law
  • Support on asset deals and share deals from an IT-law perspective

Internet

  • Design und usability
  • Web applications / development
  • Online marketing
  • Advice with respect to e-Business questions

IT compliance

  • IT use within the corporation (policies on authorizations, BYOD, etc.)
  • License management
  • IT security
  • Archiving and data retention (emails, document management systems, etc.)
  • Availability
  • Confidentiality

Localization of foreign IT contracts

  • Modification of foreign, English-language contracts to accord with German law
  • Review of German translations of English-language IT contracts