Technology has marched on ferociously in the past few decades, becoming the epi-centre of our lives. How we now exist is dependent on what technology can and will provide for us. This means that new laws, regulations and the legislation that enforces this constantly evolves and changes, making lawyers increasingly important to those of us working within this market.
Intellectual property is a term that many in the industry can be at risk of breaching if it is not adhered to within a business. There are many business and imitators over the world who break copyright regulations all of the time, so enforcing this is essential for a business wants to maintain its integrity.
The term ‘commercial law’ covers a whole host of legal services that are intended to support a business in making money out of the products or service that they provide. Intellectual property rights are vital to many industries, particularly the creative sector such as publishing and retail. Agency, distribution and sales agreements are all needed for goods and services to be made and supplied. Contracts are needed, meaning lawyers are needed. They are an integral part to the process as they protect the clients from various risk factors, such as another company running away with the idea or the money that may have been provided to have a product manufactured.
So what will a Lawyer do?
- They will identify any risks and find ways or means of reducing them.
- They will check and ensure that the language of any agreement is tight between both parties. This means that the binding agreement reflects the intentions and abilities of both parties involved in the contract. It only takes a sentence to be re-worded the wrong way for its meaning to change. This could potentially have a disastrous financial disadvantage to a company.
- A lawyer will also make sure that compliance is adhered to, so no fines occur.
- If a change to a contract is being made between two parties then a lawyer should always be involved, just to assess that the changes that are being made are not potentially damaging to their client. This is because most contracts outline obligations, provisions and stipulations that need to be met. Failing to meet these could prevent a customer from paying you or a contract not being renewed in the future.
- If you are purchasing another company then a lawyer will inevitably be needed for this acquisition as new clientele and increased revenue will hopefully follow. Any exiting contracts that the acquired company have with suppliers/customers will also need to be assessed for any potential risks to the company.
- Filing cabinets died a death a long time ago, keeping contracts and legal documents tend to stored on servers in the ‘cloud’ now. Firewalls and protection all need to be firmly secured. But it’s also accessibility to these that is important, with new people being hired and new rules, regulations and products being introduced, a filing cabinet is so outmoded, a more efficient system needs to be produced.
By Harry Price
Harry Price is a writer from the south coast. In his spare time, he’s an adventurous, fun-loving guy. He an outdoors kinda guy and spends hours running or rockclimbing – he knows every inch of the coast he lives in.