It has always been the case that software vendors will have rights to audit use of their software. The existence of such audit rights is only fair to ensure that they receive proper remuneration for all use made of products in which they will have invested significant sums in development and testing. However, there has been one development which has had an enormous impact on this issue – the rise of cloud computing. 

Most organisations have now moved at least some of their technology from on-premise into the cloud for obvious good reasons. Problems arise when organisations have shifted use of their software from physical to virtual without license rights to do so.

This development has prompted a number of traditional enterprise software vendors to ensure that they are receiving full remuneration for all virtual, and other, use of their products through rigorous audits. This may allow them to fund a pivot to cloud-first models, and stretch revenue generation from legacy software products. In many instances, these vendors engage with third party audit companies to conduct audits for them, sometimes with payment incentives for those third parties to uncover unlicensed software use. Large corporates who had been able to rely on their buying power with vendor sales teams are now having to engage in much less comfortable discussions with such auditors.

Our Tech & Commercial and IP teams have been busy supporting clients handling such audits. In this webinar they will share their experience and expertise from negotiating appropriate software audit provisions to the sharp end of handling a dispute following a software audit uncovering extensive unlicensed use. We hope you can join us for some essential insight and tips!