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Our specialist team offers a bespoke service to match the needs of any software project.

Software projects are rarely written from scratch, often relying on third party libraries, components, graphics and code snippets. We help developers to ensure this material is used in compliance with IP law – in particular the applicable copyright license – allowing you to get your code up and running quickly.

Material under open source licenses can raise particular issues, such as copyleft, viral effects, patent licensing, patent retribution and DRM restrictions. Marks & Clerk has substantial expertise in managing these matters based on experience with world leading software houses.

Specialists

for the result you need

Naïma Hnich-Gasri

Partner European Patent Attorney, Industrial Property Attorney (FR)
Naïma is an engineer, graduate from ENSTA Bretagne (formerly ENSIETA), with a specialisation in electronics and computing science.

Michael Moore

Partner Solicitor (UK)
Michael advises clients on the commercialisation, monetisation and enforcement of intellectual property assets. He advises across a broad range of sectors including electronics, life sciences, transport and energy and has a strong interest in emerging technologies including AI and Additive Manufacturing.

Alain Collet

Partner European Patent Attorney, Industrial Property Attorney (FR)
Alain started his career as a research and development engineer and later became a production engineer in industry.
He has been working in IP since 1996, first within the Thales Group and later with Marks & Clerk France.

John de Rohan-Truba

Managing Associate Solicitor (UK)
John helps clients with commercialisation and enforcement issues for all intellectual property rights across a variety of sectors. His main expertise lie in global high tech patent litigation involving telecommunications, computer systems and software technologies. His background knowledge sets him apart when advising on IP issues arising from these technologies – in particular, he is well-known for his advice on open source software usage and FRAND licensing disputes.

Services

Our specialist team offers a bespoke service to match the needs of any software project. We can help to identify third party material and the applicable license terms, flagging issues such as:

  • Unlicensed material
  • Availability of source code
  • License non-compliance
  • Viral effects,
  • Patent licensing requirements,
  • Patent retribution,
  • "Anti-tivoisation" or DRM restrictions

We will then work with you to devise mitigation strategies, including developing notice files and splash screen text to satisfy license obligations.

For future audit or due diligence, we can develop Certificates of Provenance, setting out the rights and obligations applicable to each component.

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© AI and IoT: Canadian Consultation

The goal of this consultation is to ensure that Canada's copyright framework for AI and IoT reflects the rapid advancements in digital technology.
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