RatnerPrestia’s Software Practice Group covers a broad spectrum of practice areas to protect and counsel clients regarding many aspects of software rights and software protection. The key to our Software Practice is our understanding of software technology and software businesses, which enables us to counsel clients to achieve their business and legal objectives.

We know that our clients are facing tougher competition as technology continues to be developed at increased rates and competition is global. This increased pace of development and the global marketplace make staying ahead more challenging for our clients. RatnerPrestia helps keep you ahead of the curve, protecting your software assets and ensuring that you have the rights your business needs while minimizing risk.

Our Software Practice includes many facets of other practices, including software patents and copyrights and transactions, licensing and litigation involving software.

Software Transactions/Licensing

RatnerPrestia Software Group attorneys have the knowledge and understanding of both software technology and related software-specific legal issues required to address such software transactions as:

• Software development agreements
• Reseller agreements
• Demonstration agreements
• Hosting agreements
• Distribution agreements
• Click-wrap/Shrink-wrap agreements
• Escrow agreements
• Beta use agreements
• Corporate transactions

Software Protection

Software related inventions that meet other requirements of patentability, are patentable in the United States, despite some press reports to the contrary. The key is knowing the intricacies of the law for properly drafting a patent application to ensure that your invention is eligible for patent protection.

Software patent protection complements copyright registration and trade secrecy. It is important for clients to understand the interplay between copyright, patent, and trade secret protection along with open source implications.

Open Source

RatnerPrestia helps clients navigate the myriad of Open Source Software (OSS) licenses, whether they are licensing in or licensing out. Our attorneys are experienced in counseling clients regarding the terms of OSS licenses and the related intellectual property strategies. We advise clients regarding license compliance, but that is only part of the picture. In addition, we counsel clients on whether use of OSS has implications on their proprietary software rights. It is important to understand how implementation of OSS may affect proprietary intellectual property and what measures may be taken to minimize exposure of your proprietary intellectual property. RatnerPrestia also counsels clients on the implementation of internal OSS use policies. This is all considered in view of a client’s overall corporate intellectual property objectives.