On June 12, Marcus Harris spoke to members of the Distribution Solutions Council (DSC) on software licensing and how to use the contract negotiation process as a competitive differentiator. The DSC is an industry round-table of software executives with an interest in serving the distribution marketplace, exploring new ideas beneficial to the industry and discussing best…
In February of this year SAP eliminated its low cost maintenance option leaving new customers with a maintenance option priced at 22% of software license fees. With the influx of SASS and third party providers like Rimini Street, SAP’s 22% increase seems counterintuitive. SAP’s maintenance increase, though, brings it in line with Oracle – which…
The Wall Street Journal in an article located here discusses Apple’s successful attempt to trademark the 3-dimensional design of its iPod media player. While the concepts discussed are standard fare for our clients and readers of our blog and newsletter, one particular passage stands out: “companies typically don’t give enough attention to the management and potential value of trademarks…
SAP recently reported a steeper than expected drop in Q1 profits. SAP was apparently impacted by acquisition related costs, the weaker dollar and delayed investments on new software. If you are currently involved in a software acquisition with SAP, now may be the time to aggressively seek concessions as SAP may be more willing to negotiate in…
The Software Freedom Law Center announced on March 6 that BusyBox and High-Gain Antennas have agreed to dismiss the GPL enforcement lawsuit filed by the Software Freedom Law Center on behalf of the BusyBox developers late last year. Consistent with previously dismissed GPL lawsuit filed by the Software Freedom Law Center (blogged about here), High-Gain Antennas…
Last month the BSA reached settlements with Ron Ayers Motorsports, Sentage Corporation and TruStile Doors, LLC. Under the terms of the settlement the companies agreed to pay the BSA $72,053, $80,000 and $92,500 respectively to settle claims that they were using unlicensed copies of software on their computers. Implementing a software license management program so that you…
SAP has eliminated its Basic Support maintenance option priced at 17% of license fees leaving new customers with only a maintenance offering priced at 22% of license fees. Original story located here. Given SAP’s new maintenance scheme, choosing a lawyer to negotiate your SAP software licensing agreement that knows what maintenance concessions SAP will agree to…
The National Consumer Council (the “NCC”) in a study reported here found that software licenses are confusing and have terms that protect the interests of the vendor over those of the end user. To anyone that has reviewed or negotiated a software license these findings are hardly surprising. Signing a license without first having the agreement reviewed…
In a January 28th article, located here, CFO magazine quotes Huron Consulting Group’s Jeffrey Szafran, as saying “revenue-recognition problems . . . are probably the leading cause of restatements among software companies.” The consequences of getting it wrong can be severe. NEC (as reported in that same article) faced with the prospect of restating earnings…