A breach of contract is material non-compliance with the terms of a legally binding contract.
Breaches of contract give rise to:
It’s a necessary part of any legally binding contract that each party expects to obtain the benefit of the contract entered into.
But then it’s breached. What happens then? How do legal rights to damages and termination play out?
For most of us, understanding software licensing means understanding copyright law and contract law.
So a few basic principles first.
Contracts dealing with software fundamentally rely on the copyright law, and then change how copyright applies to the software.
Confused?
No need to be.
We step through it here.
With so many different sorts of contracts out there, you can expect to be doing contract reviews on a whole host of different agreements.
Partnership agreements, contracts with independent contractors, suppliers, software contracts and intellectual property: all sort of business contracts and legal documents.
All contracts will have some effect on your business. Some big, some small.
If you haven’t read it or don’t understand it, you’re exposing your business to unknown risks.
If you’re a new or established director of a company, a series of statutory duties apply to your appointment as a director.
Getting to grips with how they work is an important step to perform the role to the standard that the law expects.
Get a better understanding of how companies are intended to be governed by directors, and the standards expected of directors when running a company.
Passing off is a little understood intellectual property right.
On a superficial level it protects trade marks, trade dress and reputation of businesses.
Passing off protects businesses does more than that.
Much more.
One of the reasons it does, is that it adapts to apply in the ever-changing business environment to protect the true source of products and services: the business.
Client lists, research and development, plans and strategies, pricing models, source code, what customers will pay for a product or service, product testing, and a whole host of other information.
It’s all sensitive information. Businesses can’t function without it. It can all be protected by confidential information.
The same principles apply in commercial, employment and non-employment situations with small differences.
It applies to a wide range of information.
That’s regardless of the media that it is recorded. Or whether it is just kept in people’s heads and never written down.
What’s more, confidential information can protect information before other forms of intellectual property come into existence, or never will.