IT law for lawyers

Legal basis and current developments

• Impact of new EU regulations: AI Act, Data Act, Data Governance Act, NIS 2 Directive.
• National adaptations and current case law on IT and software contracts.
• The importance of compliance, liability, and governance in digital projects.

Types of contracts and legal classification

• Distinction: contract for work and services, contract for services, hybrid forms (Sections 611 et seq., 631 et seq. BGB).
• Typical use cases: Waterfall methodology vs. agile project models (Scrum).
• Special features of project contracts

Copyright and licensing law in IT and AI projects

• Protectable intangible assets (source code, training data, models, prompts, documentation).
• Structure and contents of a license agreement (rights of use, exclusivity, territory, duration, open source compliance).
• Special features of software law (backup copies, updates, leasing, SaaS access).
• Transfer of rights for AI-generated content and copyright responsibility, including handling of training data
• Sanctions, damages, and criminal risks in the event of legal violations.
• Insight into US copyright law.

The project contract as the legal backbone

• Structure and typical layout of an IT/AI project contract.
• From "actual" to "target": service description, specifications, and change management.
• Legally compliant documentation of interim results and approvals.
• Distinction and legal consequences of the nature of a contract for work and services.
• Obligations of the parties to cooperate and collaborate.

Special forms: Outsourcing, Cloud & SaaS

• Structure and process of managing service projects (outsourcing).
• Contract models for cloud and SaaS services (framework agreement, service level agreement, service certificates).
• Special obligations under the Data Act (data access, portability, interoperability).
• Security and liability issues in the cloud environment (shared responsibility model, NIS2 compliance).
• Data protection and data security requirements (Art. 28 GDPR, TOMs, analysis of typical contract templates, work contract, SaaS contract, agile contract).
• Current cases from case law (Federal Court of Justice, Higher Regional Court, European Court of Justice).
• Best practices for the legally compliant design of IT and AI projects.
• Discussion of individual questions from participants.