With most businesses relying heavily on the internet and social media to operate and advertise, seeking legal advice from a tech lawyer has become increasingly important. A “tech lawyer” refers to a lawyer who understands the mechanisms of running an online business. There are many factors in running an online business that a lawyer who is unfamiliar with the area may not be adept in. This article will explore how a tech lawyer can help you run your tech business.
Business Terms and Conditions
When running your online business, you generally do not have any face-to-face contact with customers. However, this does not have to impact the quality of services that you provide customers. By putting together a detailed set of business terms and conditions, you can clearly set out how your business works so that your customers understand what your business is about without speaking to you. Moreover, a tech lawyer can draft your terms and conditions so that you can provide them online for your customers to agree to. This eliminates the need for clients to manually print off a copy, sign it and return it to you.
Payment Mechanisms
If you are accepting payments online for your business, your terms and conditions need to reflect this. However, it is not enough to simply state that your online business does not accept cash payments.
A tech lawyer can draft provisions that:
- detail whether you will accept payment through external payment mechanisms, such as Paypal or credit cards;
- protect you in case your customers enter incorrect information into the payment gateways; and
- provide you with enough time to process payments before sending purchased goods or services to customers.
Intellectual Property
An important role of tech lawyers is to protect any intellectual property that may appear on your website. Online businesses rely heavily on their websites to provide useful information and present eye-catching graphics to customers. Therefore, it is important to protect your intellectual property against infringement. A tech lawyer can insert provisions into your terms and conditions or create a website terms of use document that clearly sets out how the use of any intellectual property on your website is restricted.
Software Development
If you are in the process of creating a website for your small business, you may be engaging a software developer for website development services. If so, it is a good idea to enter into a software development agreement with your developer. A tech lawyer can draft such a software development agreement with specific clauses to suit your online business needs. Such an agreement is different from service agreements that most lawyers are familiar with due to the differences between traditional methods of providing services and the software development process. For example, software development often happens in phases, correspondence between parties is often exchanged through online means, such as Basecamp, and a percentage of technical errors will need to be identified as acceptable, as hardly any website will be error-free.
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Software as a Service
Your online business may be a software as a service (‘SaaS’) product, in which case you should ask a tech lawyer to help draft specific SaaS terms and conditions. Tech lawyers will ensure SaaS terms and conditions cover important concerns such as:
- use of data;
- licensing of any SaaS platform; and
- hosting and back up services.
A tech lawyer will help you draft the licence terms governing a customer’s use of the SaaS. They will also know how to draft the terms to mutually protect your data and your customer’s data and insert reasonable safeguards against liability arising from a customer’s use of the SaaS. A tech lawyer will be sure to address all other relevant aspects of a SaaS, such as:
- the provision of support services;
- procurement services; and
- terms around authorised users.
By having a tech lawyer address these terms, you can be confident in providing your product.
Key Takeaways
Tech lawyers have the know-how and experience working with various online businesses to be best placed to help you run your online business. Many lawyers do not have the industry and technical knowledge to be accustomed to the various legal factors of running an online business. A tech lawyer can offer specific knowledge to your online business to do with business terms and conditions, payment mechanisms, intellectual property, software development and software as a service.
If you need help with your online business, our experienced tech lawyers can assist as part of our LegalVision membership. For a low monthly fee, you will have unlimited access to lawyers to answer your questions and draft and review your documents. Call us today on 1300 544 755 or visit our membership page.
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