Wednesday, November 30, 2005

Software Escrows - An Attorneys perspective

As Attorneys who draft agreements, contracts between business houses on a very regular basis in the current economic environment, all necessary care and attention is paid to the minutest of details in every agreement / contract. A software license agreement is one such contract wherein software is licensed and the licensor and a licensee are parties to the contract. The nature of the software license agreement is different from other agreements.

The fact of the truth is that all agreements drafted today have their deficiencies, and these shortcomings come to light only when a party to the contract breaches it and there are legal implications to it. In the case of the software license agreement, a software product is licensed to the licensee, but the licensee does not own the product and still has to depend on the licensor for future, maintenance, development, and enhancement of the said software. With this in mind to give such licensees a time bound solution to their problems, Software Source Code Escrow was born.

A Software Source Code Escrow is a case wherein a neutral third party holds in physical possession, protects and secures the source code for the benefit of the licensee in case of a future contingency. A software agreement until the emergence of software escrows was biased towards the licensor. Now the scales are in balance with the coming of software escrows. It has been proved over the years that software escrow is realistically operative and provides a watertight solution in case of a future contingency.

As attorneys to a software licensee agreement on either side, software escrows should be a pertinent part of a software licensee agreement. An Attorney of the licensor would not be to keen on having a software escrow in place. With the escrow concept gaining popularity the globe over one day it may become statutory that a software escrow be drafted parallel to a software license agreement. The software escrow from the point of the licensor increases several fold the confidence of potential clients of the company. It also sends out a very positive message to the market in general. A software escrow from the point of the licensee is very crucial to protect his interests in the agreement.

You need more information about software escrows, log onto our website at www.escrowtech.in or mail us at info@escrowtech.in and we will provide you with all the information you ever need.

Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Software Escrow - It Protects you

You are the licensee to a Software license agreement; your rights can be protected by the use of a software Escrow agreement.

In most cases software licensees feel that an escrow initiated is undue overheads, they also occasionally mention that the escrow established did not serve the purpose as no contingent event occurred during the lifetime of the software licensed.

The primary factor which plays a large role in determining the smooth license agreement relationship is the existence of a software escrow. If the license agreement has been strictly adhered and no contingent event occurred, one factor influencing this could be the software escrow.

Software escrows are widely used in the west and have benefited many an organization. The practice and importance of a software escrow is realized and acknowledged the world over.

It is interesting that the total cost of the escrow, accounts for less than 5 % of the total cost the software invested in. The value of escrows have been appreciated the world over, its about time you did.

Monday, November 21, 2005

EscrowTech to Partner ReadyTestGO

EscrowTech India has signed a two-year software testing agreement with ReadyTestGo to offer Technical Verification services for the escrowed materials in India.