OnTechnologyContracts

Wells Fargo bank sues itself …

I shook my head in bemusement over this story.

After dodging a bullet, maybe Wal-Mart will tweak its language to say “we reserve the right” instead of “we will”

Wal-Mart requires its suppliers to agree to a code of conduct. It was sued, in California, by employees of suppliers in various Third World countries, on grounds that • the retail giant had failed to police the suppliers' compliance with the code's standards, and • the employees were allegedly third-party beneficiaries of ...

When the customer is a government, the right paperwork can mean the difference between getting paid, and not

Two cases illustrate that if you want to get paid by a government customer, you have to comply with the legal formalities, quite possibly more so than when dealing with a commercial customer. • U.S. NeuroSurgical, Inc. v. City of Chicago, No. 07-3520 (7th Cir. Jul. 9, 2009) (affirming district court judgment ...

Electrical utility’s failure to invoke mandatory but non-binding dispute resolution procedure before filing lawsuit doesn’t save power-turbine vendor from big damage award

See South Tex. Elec. Cooperative v. Dresser-Rand Co., No. 08-40715 (5th Cir. July 9, 2009) (affirming judgment on jury verdict for $700K for warranty problems in electrical generating turbine).

Defendant tries to compel arbitration after trial judge adopts plaintiff’s contract interpretation – no dice, says Fifth Circuit

Use it or lose it — "it" being an arbitration clause in a contract dispute: That's the lesson of Petroleum Pipe Americas Corp. v. Jindal Saw Ltd., No. 08-20461 (5th Cir. Jul. 9, 2009) (affirming denial of motion to stay and to compel arbitration). After the plaintiff filed its breach-of-contract lawsuit in ...

Federal government is increasingly wanting unlimited rights in data, say commentators

Bid solicitations by the federal government are increasingly seeking unlimited rights in ‘data’ produced pursuant to the contract, using the FAR 52.227-17 Rights in Data clause under the Federal Acquisition Regulations. This is according to a client memo by Thomas J. Madden and James Y. Boland of the Venable firm. ...

Inadequate consumer opt-in language could cost Simon & Schuster $100 million in class-action damages for text-message advertising campaign

Here’s an object lesson about the importance of double-checking the consumer opt-in language before committing to a big spam-type marketing campaign. Simon & Schuster hired a marketing firm to send out text-message advertisements for a Steven King horror novel. A subscriber received one of these text-message ads on her ...

Google Chrome sound goes out – how I fixed it

My Google Chrome browser mysteriously lost its sound. I found various possible fixes at the Google support forum. What did the trick was this suggestion: “open the chrome task manager (shift+esc) on the page where a video is not playing sound, end the shockwave flash plug-in, and then refresh the ...

Vendor sends its standard T&Cs after the deal is struck by email – and later finds the T&C protections aren’t part of the contract

See this memo by a UK solicitors firm. (In the U.S., the picture may be complicated by UCC § 2-207.)

State law peculiarities – things to keep in mind in negotiating a choice-of-law clause

It occurred to me that it’d be great to have a state-by-state crib sheet or ‘gouge’ of useful things to know when negotiating a choice-of-law clause. I couldn’t find anything like that either Google or Bing. So I’ve started a set of such crib sheets, and will attempt to update ...