33If I Wanted to Be a Lawyer, I Would Have Gone to Law School
Information technology contracts reside at the intersection of technology, accounting, and law. Before you sign a contract, it's wise to consult with experts from all three disciplines. My advice is to learn as many legal concepts as you can and teach your legal partners as much about technology as they're willing to absorb. The more you understand each other, the better you'll do when negotiating an agreement together.
For large, complex contracts, it may be beneficial to bring in outside experts. Some attorneys specialize in technology agreements. Work with these experts to create your own forms for mutual non-disclosure agreements, contract labor, consulting, and cloud software.
In a services contract, ensure that the work products have clearly designated ownership rights. When you hire software developers, does their company retain rights to the software you pay them to develop? They could, and I've been surprised by that clause in contracts. If the contract says they own the output and they've granted you a license, this means they can sell the software to other clients, potentially unbeknownst to you.
The rest of this chapter will explore licensing models and other legal concepts every CIO should understand to help you better work with legal and accounting teams.
Licensing Models
A primary construct in a software agreement is the licensing model. These range from simple and understandable business metrics ...
Get Fostering Innovation now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
