Technology

Used properly, Open Source Software (OSS) is an excellent tool. It saves your business time and money, enables interoperability of product platforms, and developers love it. But used improperly, it can be financially and operationally devastating. For example, the statutory damages for failure to properly adhere to the OSS copyright notice can be up to $150,000 per act of infringement. Those damages can quickly add up to serious consequences, whether preventing a sale or merger of your company or the destruction of the value of the affected products. Another serious risk is that once OSS is used in your code base and deployed in distributed products, if your tech teams are not monitoring and applying bug fixes, known vulnerabilities become Trojan horses of opportunity for bad actors. The good news is that protecting your company from these types of risks is rather simple. We have outlined below key steps and processes in-house counsel should take to work with your business stakeholders to mitigate these risks.   

Interest in cryptocurrency investments has been increasing at a rapid pace and employers don't want to be left behind. In this webinar, team members from Mintz’s Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation Practice break down key considerations employers face towards designing compensation programs to pay employees in the form of cryptocurrencies.

Founded by Dilan Shah in 2019, YUR fit is a leader in accessible fitness technology in the gaming space. YUR’s gamified social layer pairs with virtual and augmented reality games to allow gamers to sync health data, such as exercise, sleep, and nutrition. YUR can be used within almost any digital space, allowing gamers to use various wearables and gaming platforms for fitness tracking.

This issue of MintzTech Connect covers stock vesting in start-up companies and how to write an executive summary for a start-up and includes a spotlight on YUR Inc., a fitness technology company targeted at the gaming community.

This edition covers the patentability of blockchain and cryptocurrency, SEC Rule 148, a Delaware Supreme Court ruling on the advance waiver of appraisal rights, and Miyoko’s Creamery.

This edition of MintzTech Connect covers the patentability of blockchain and cryptocurrency, SEC Rule 148, a Delaware Supreme Court ruling on the advance waiver of appraisal rights, and Miyoko’s Creamery.

Computer-based inventions – especially in the machine learning (ML), bioinformatics, and artificial intelligence (AI) fields – are susceptible to subject matter eligibility challenges. Subject matter eligibility challenges may prevent a patent application from being granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and may even be asserted to invalidate a patent post-grant. In recent years, the Federal Circuit has implemented a multi-step test to determine whether patent claims would survive a subject matter eligibility challenge.

Frank Gerratana discusses the relationship between blockchain and cryptocurrency and the underlying intellectual property issues and opportunities for patent holders.

Machine learning (ML), bioinformatics, artificial intelligence (AI), and other computational tools have become ubiquitous in the biotech and synthetic biology industries because such technology allows for rapid processing of a large amount of complex data to produce advancements in therapeutics and diagnostics. As the landscape becomes increasingly more competitive, it is important for companies, particularly in the aforementioned industries, to obtain patent protection for their AI-related technology.

Venture capital investing continues to thrive across all sectors. During the first half of 2021, the Mintz team advised more than 65 emerging companies and investors in transactions in all facets of the life sciences, technology, and energy and sustainability industries.

This issue of MintzTech Connect covers issues related to ransomware and mandatory vaccinations for people returning to private offices, plus spotlights on EcoCart and Stavvy.

Read about EcoCart, a company that provides an e-commerce plugin for merchants to offer carbon-neutral orders and a Chrome extension for shoppers looking to lower their carbon footprint.

Read about Stavvy, an innovative fintech company that provides a collaborative platform for lenders, title agents, attorneys, notaries, settlement agents, borrowers, and others involved in real estate transactions.

This issue covers the trend of public benefit companies going public, how gig workers may become eligible for equity compensation, a MintzEdge podcast on venture debt, and a spotlight on GroGuru.

Read about GroGuru, an AgTech company with hardware and software offerings that help farmers increase crop yield and more efficiently use water and other scarce resources sustainably.

Read about how companies can increase the enforceability of digital contracts, online terms incorporated by reference into non-electronic agreements, and updates of online terms.

This Mintz advisory reviews the challenges associated with agile software development contracts and provides best practices to avoid rising costs and legal disputes.

In the recent SolarWinds hack, the routine task of downloading a software update turned into a cybersecurity nightmare for over 18,000 organizations including the Treasury Department, AT&T and up to 85% of Fortune 500 companies. New York has the SHIELD Act, a statute that requires that organizations select third party service providers “capable of maintaining appropriate cybersecurity safeguards”.

In this edition of MintzTech Connect, we feature Turing Enterprises, builders of an AI-based platform that is revolutionizing the way tech companies in Silicon Valley and beyond hire mission-critical talent.