Tech Disputes - Looking to the Future

Specialist hardware in large scale IT projects

In the final episode of the series, Phillip Kelly (a partner in our Technology Disputes team) is joined by Gareth Stokes (a partner in our Technology & Outsourcing team) to discuss the swing back towards the use of specialist hardware in large scale IT projects.  Whereas the trend over the last 20 years had been for software driven solutions, the benefits of the latest developments (AI, big data, crypto-currencies) are enhanced by the use of bespoke hardware. In this podcast, we discuss the opportunities presented by specialist hardware and the contractual and legal factors you need to be aware of when entering into these projects. See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

Smart legal contracts

In the second episode of the series, Phillip Kelly (a partner in our Technology Disputes team) is joined by Dan Jewell (a legal director in our Technology Disputes team) to discuss smart legal contracts and the issues businesses need to be aware of when embedding smart contract technology into their legal agreements. Smart legal contracts are very much on the government’s and the courts’ agenda, with the Law Commission providing advice in late 2021 on whether the existing law of England and Wales can accommodate this new technology. In this podcast, we discuss issues including the role of code and its interaction with natural language in smart contracts, allocation of risk when things go wrong, considerations regarding the selection of governing law and jurisdiction, on-chain dispute resolution mechanisms, and the suitability of arbitration as a forum for disputes. See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

Key legal risks of NFTs

In the first episode of the series, Dan Jewell (a legal director in our Technology Disputes team) joins Phillip to discuss non-fungible tokens, or “NFTs”. NFTs are an asset class that have rapidly captured popular imagination, with some NFT minters becoming millionaires virtually overnight, and others seeing NFTs they have purchased at a premium plunge in value. We discuss issues relating to the rights acquired when purchasing NFTs, the risk of fraud and how to guard against it, and the regulatory framework applicable to NFTs and how it might develop. See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.