New Technologies and Media

As part of our firm's activity in the area of new technologies, we provide advice and assistance in relation to the full spectrum of internet issues, from the creation of start-ups through contract assistance.

Our firm participates, in transactions focusing on computer technology, including security programs involving encryption, in negotiations and drafting licenses, distribution agreements and joint ventures, in diverse industries.

Examples of Matters Relating to Computer Technologies and Software :

• Negotiation of license from a U.S. company to a French company for the distribution of computer hardware and software in the context of security programs involving encryption.
• Negotiation and drafting of model software licensing agreements for a French-based multinational with a private European organization representing transport companies, relating to communications and railway technology, for the purpose of having the French entity's technology adopted as the European standard.
• Negotiation and drafting of a joint venture agreement in the telecommunications sector between a subsidiary handling space-related activities of a French-based multinational company and a medium-sized American company having developed software capable of tracking a mobile unit on the surface of the earth by satellite. Drafting and negotiation of twenty-two contracts to implement legal, tax and commercial objectives of the joint venture, including manufacturing, distribution and license agreements. Formation of the French joint venture vehicle.
• Rédaction et négociation de vingt-deux contrats nécessaires à la réalisation des objectifs commerciaux de la filiale commune, y compris de plusieurs accords de fabrication, de distribution et de licence ; création d'une société française.
• Preparation of a joint venture agreement between a U. S. company and a French entity to organize the joint development of an interactive telephonic game for the European market.
• Coordination among engineers and in-house counsel of six European subsidiaries of a multinational corporation to create a European holding company for the purpose of entering into a joint venture agreement with a U. S. listed company for the use of radio-frequency communications in computer applications. Negotiation and drafting of joint venture and implementation agreements.
• Négociation et rédaction de l'accord de constitution de filiale commune ainsi que des accords connexes nécessaires pour son exécution.
• Legal opinion prepared for a French Government Ministry concerning transnational transmission of computerized information by satellite, involving consideration of applicable law, rules concerning ownership and security interests, as well as taxation and contract law.
• Review and redrafting of a standard contract for the purchase and use of computer hardware and software in the medical field for the French subsidiary of a multinational American computer firm.
• Review and amendments to a software license agreement on behalf of a French alcoholic beverages company.
• Preparation of a commercial distribution agreement in the chemical field between an American software company and a French company for the distribution of software.
• Preparation of an R & D contract between a French national transport company and an American corporation, in connection with the creation of a joint subsidiary.
• Audit of contracts for the sale of software and assistance in the negotiation of such contracts, for the benefit of the company creating the software.
• Assistance to a company belonging to a large industrial group in the field of civil and military aviation, relating to its intellectual property rights in aircraft operating and maintenance manuals used by purchasers of the aircraft, which it puts on CD-ROMs and online, and which it generates on the basis of information communicated to it by the aircraft manufacturer.
• Assistance to a company belonging to a large industrial group in the field of automobile parts, within the framework of a legal procedure brought against it as a user of allegedly pirated software specially developed for its own needs.

Examples of Matters Relating to the Internet :

• Legal assistance to a service supplier of a large French aeronautical company for the digital formulation of information on the operation and maintenance of planes, with subsequent Internet transmission of such information by the company to its customers.
• Preparation and negotiation of photographers' contracts of a well-known photography agency in France, relating to diffusion by the Internet of the photographs managed by the agency, following its acquisition by one of the world leaders of the diffusion of digitized images.
• Drafting of a technical surveillance contract relating to the developments of Internet sites, in the field of optics.
• Assistance in France to an international executive recruiting company in the installation of data bases interconnected through an Intranet.
• Assistance to a US company for export to France of American encryption software.
• Analysis of questions concerning the transfer of significant and sensitive civil and military significant information: encryption, liability of access and hosting providers, protection of personal data, intellectual property rights.
• Examination of methods for protecting against the risks of illegal use of material on the Internet by others.
• Study made for private companies concerning the liability of access and hosting providers in the event of infringement copyright and related rights on the Internet.
• Study on the nature of copyrights and their protection on the Internet in the European Union, for a group of lawyers, magistrates, government and private sector executives of the Andean Community of Nations: comparison of the markets between Europe and Latin America; historical experience; application of the economic and moral rights concerned; liability of service providers, in particular on the international level; international jurisdictional competence and conflict of laws, hyperlinks.
• Studies on the international provisions in international conventions relating to copyright in connection with the Internet: scope and implementation of the rights concerned, enforcement of rights, technical measures to communicate information on intellectual property rights and to ensure their defense.
• Assistance to a company belonging to a large industrial group in the field of the automobile spare parts, with regard to the installation of its Internet site and, more particularly, with regard to the examination of third party rights called into question by the contents of the site.
• Study of the Internet in International copyright conventions.