License audit

License audits allow publishers to verify the scope of use of their software by their customers. Cabinet FÉRAL assists you in these audits.

The metrics used are complex and evolving. In virtualized technical environments, the application of licenses acquired several years ago to a technical context that is very different today often poses difficulties. We assist our clients in the negotiation of license agreements with software publishers, particularly the market leaders ORACLE, IBM, SAP, HP and MICROSOFT, which gives us in-depth knowledge of the licensing conditions proposed by these publishers.

A license audit requires a legal treatment. Cabinet FÉRAL assists you on specific questions of clause interpretation (metrics, audit clause), but also on the most classic ones:

– Should license audits be accepted?
– How often?
– Should you run the scripts provided by the publishers?
– How to identify possible challenges?

The objective is to get the publisher to abandon unjustified requests and to negotiate only the necessary adjustments in order to limit the financial consequences.
The metrics used are complex and evolving. In virtualized technical environments, the application of licenses acquired several years ago to a technical context that is very different today often poses difficulties. We assist our clients in the negotiation of license agreements with software publishers, particularly the market leaders ORACLE, IBM, SAP, HP and MICROSOFT, which gives us in-depth knowledge of the licensing conditions proposed by these publishers.

A license audit requires a legal treatment. Cabinet FÉRAL assists you on specific questions of clause interpretation (metrics, audit clause), but also on the most classic ones:

– Should license audits be accepted?
– How often?
– Should you run the scripts provided by the publishers?
– How to identify possible challenges?

The objective is to get the publisher to abandon unjustified requests and to negotiate only the necessary adjustments in order to limit the financial consequences.

Recent experiences

1. Assistance to a credit institution in the defense of its rights against an American publisher of programming software; analysis of the various adhesion contracts exchanged between the parties, of the applicable law and of the competent jurisdictions; assistance in the investigation of the real use of the product; definition of strategic options, including with regard to the risk of discovery from the United States;

2. Assisting an industry group in the environmental packaging sector in conducting and resolving an audit of its licensing rights by a global database and ERP solutions provider;

3. Assisted a bank in analyzing its rights under a global group license agreement for infrastructure / DBMS solutions and server virtualization impacts;

4. Assistance to a credit institution in the defense of its rights against an American financial software publisher contesting the results of an audit; preparation of conclusions and assistance in the settlement of the dispute;

5. Assisted an international provider of technology, products and services to the refining, petrochemical, gas and alternative fuel markets in a license audit with one of the world’s leading database software companies.

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