Morning Session: Learning from License Agreement Disputes:  Insights and Lessons Learned to Improve Your Contracts and Mitigate Risk

Agreement language matters. Time and again parties end up in litigation when the language of their agreements proves ambiguous. In many cases the ambiguity might have been avoided during drafting, as sometimes small changes to language, or a careful extra eye in review, may have been all that was needed to avoid a dispute.

What should the drafter look out for?  Does the complexity of the relationship matter, for example if the parties contemplate a long-term relationship that may involve multiple contracts? In comparison to a single-agreement relationship, broader multiple-contract relationships present some unique challenges when trying to craft language that will age gracefully, provide flexibility to the relationship, and control any later potential dispute. Using recent cases as a guide, including cases that we litigated and successfully presented to a jury, we identify specific contract drafting lessons related to the use of defined terms, the interplay of multiple contracts in commercial relationships, improving dispute resolution provisions, and defining the scope of a license. With these lessons from litigation in mind, we present strategies to help identify and address issues of ambiguity before they result in a dispute.

Afternoon Session: Lessons Learned in Licensing

This panel will discuss common issues in licensing and best practices to address IP licensing issues.