# SOFTWARE

Leupold Legal advises software providers on the legally compliant development, protection and licensing of their software. For companies about to launch new software to manage their business processes, Leupold Legal creates customized project agreements and maintenance contracts that lay the legal foundation for project success and business continuity.

Legal advice for software providers

Open Source Software

The use of open-source software (OSS) in the development of commercial software offers numerous advantages but also entails legal risks.

Open source licences such as the GNU General Public License (GPL) or the Mozilla Public License can, due to ‘copyleft’ effects, mean that software may only be passed on under certain conditions that do not allow licence conditions that deviate from them. Inappropriate integration of OSS into proprietary software can infect the entire software and restrict commercial use.

Leupold Legal supports software providers in the legally secure integration of open source components into their own software and in avoiding licence violations and liability risks.

Legal protection of software

Developing software regularly requires significant investments. This makes the legal protection of software all the more important, and every software provider should be aware of the conditions and legal consequences. Leupold Legal

tells you in which phases of software development protectable work results arise
provides clarity on who obtains the rights when software is developed by freelancers or employees
has the right answers to the questions of whether algorithms and AI models or AI systems are protected by copyright.
alerts you if there is a need for legal action to protect your software and provides support for its implementation.

Software licensing

Software providers and their customers are increasingly turning to software as a service (SaaS), but some companies still prefer on-premises models. Software End User License Agreements (EULA) must be flexible and individually tailored to this.

Leupold Legal creates customized software licence terms that achieve this and also ensures GDPR compliance and protection of trade secrets when processing data in the cloud.

Legal advice for software users

IT project contracts

The introduction of software in a company is complex and involves significant risks – almost 70% of all IT projects fail either completely or in part due to missing or unclear contractual provisions and inadequate project management. Delays, cost explosions and insufficient software functionality are particularly problematic. Clear contractual provisions help to achieve project goals and minimise project risks.

Leupold Legal supports you with

legally watertight IT project contracts for software implementation in your company, which create the basis for achieving your project goals
a success-oriented design of agreements for the adaptation of standard software or the development of individual software
the regulation of the acquisition of software licences at the right time and in line with the extent of their actual use.

Service Level Agreements

To ensure business continuity, software maintenance contracts with service level agreements (SLAs) that meet your system availability requirements are indispensable. Leupold Legal drafts and negotiates customized SLAs that also cover the interaction with existing IT system landscapes and ensure the operational readiness of high availability (HA) systems.

Software is the engine of your business. Ensure it´s running and get the legal support to make sure it is so.

al@leupold-legal.com