The Tech Contracts Handbook: Cloud Computing Agreements, Software Licenses, and Other IT Contracts for Lawyers and Businesspeople

by David W. Tollen

The Tech Contracts Handbook is a userfriendly reference manual and training guide on software licenses and other IT agreements, along with cloud computing issues. This handbook is for both lawyers and businesspeople, including contract managers, procurement officers, corporate counsel, salespeople, and anyone else responsible for getting IT deals done. Perhaps, most important, the book uses clear, simple English, just like a good contract. The book describes each clause typically found in a technology agreement, outlines the issues at stake, and offers negotiation tips and sample contract language. The book addresses four principle types of IT • Software license agreements and software ownership agreements• IP professional services agreements• Cloud services agreements• Combination agreementsTopics include warranties, indemnities, open source software, nondisclosure agreements, limitations of liability, software escrow, data security, copyright licensing, both private and government contracts, and much more.

Genres: Law, Business, Legal, Reference, Technical

275 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 1, 2010

About the author

David Tollen writes young adult fantasy novels that teach history and science -- as well as nonfiction about technology law.

David's first novel, THE JERICHO RIVER, won the London Book Festival for best YA work and the Next Generation Indie Book Awards for sci-fi/fantasy. It also won a bronze medal in the Readers' Favorite Book Reviews and Awards Contest, among other honors. THE JERICHO RIVER is an adventure novel that uses fantasy to teach the history of Western Civilization. It's published by Winifred Press. (The book's first edition was released under the pen-name "David Carthage." The current/second edition uses the author's actual name.) In the not-too-distant future, Winifred Press will publish David's next book: SECRETS OF HOMINEA, a YA novel that uses fantasy to teach both history and science.

David is also the author of THE TECH CONTRACTS HANDBOOK: CLOUD COMPUTING AGREEMENTS, SOFTWARE LICENSES, AND OTHER IT CONTRACTS. It's published by the American Bar Association, and it's the number-one bestseller for the Intellectual Property Law Section of the ABA. THE TECH CONTRACTS HANDBOOK is a how-to guide for drafting and negotiating IT agreements, written in simple English.

David earned law degrees from Harvard Laws School and Cambridge University in England, as well as a B.A. in history from U.C. Berkeley. He's the founder of Sycamore Legal P.C., a San Francisco technology and intellectual property law firm.

For more information, please visit www.DavidTollen.com or www.TechContracts.com.

Reviews

[Ronald Rodriguez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Provides general information towards the back--stuff that anybody who does this for a living knows already. The first half covers the pertinent material. Provides some template language. Good general overview for us tech novices.

[Karl · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book offered good examples and helpful pointers in creating and reading contracts. To get the most out of the book requires doing work creating contracts that use the embodied principles.

[Prasanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Tech Contracts Handbook is a excellent resource to understand the legal contracts and agreements that a technology entrepreneur must have in place.

The authors explains the important clauses and types of clauses in an easy language. He also advises and instructs his readers on how to make sense of legal language that seems ambiguous. The book also has some important observations about what an entrepreneur should expect form a business contract and what its true purposes are, which will be helpful to young Startups.

~ http://bookreviews.infoversant.com/th...

[Hess · Rating 4 out of 5]

Useful for non-US company executives operating overseas. Does not go into detail on software as a service (SaaS), which feels like a bit of an oversight. However, there is enough here (from crafting SLAs to technical specifications) that the book can still be adapted to this use case with a bit of effort.

IT services (software for hire), software licenses (i.e. software sold on a one-off basis) and hybrid agreements (some combination of these two) are covered well.

[Cyrus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Straightforward & helpful drafting suggestions.

[Jordan Mazur · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great survey. I'd like more depth on many of the topics, but this is very useful for what it is.