Technology is no longer a distinctly defined sector; it impacts almost every business in some way, and can be central to their future success.
Mishcon de Reya's Technology group is an integrated team of more than 40 lawyers drawn from our corporate, IP, finance, tax, employment and regulatory practices. We have teams located in London and New York and, with more than two thirds of the firm's revenue coming from outside the UK, we are able to act in most jurisdictions worldwide.
Our aim is not only to connect our clients with the legal services they require throughout the lifecycle of their business, but also to connect them with our own network of clients, contacts and advisors. We have a strong reputation in the private capital arena – where investment is increasingly coming from private sources such as High Net Worth Individuals, family offices, venture capitalists and private equity houses.
Our lawyers act for companies in the traditional IT sector as well as emerging technology businesses. Our Technology group has a flat structure which mirrors the way many of our entrepreneurial clients work.
Services
We offer a complete range of legal services tailored to the technology industry:
- flotations and corporate finance
- IP protection, exploitation and litigation
- mergers and acquisitions
- data protection and privacy
- all aspects of running businesses in the Cloud including: outsourcing, software licensing and distribution agreements
- management of data centres associated activities including: site acquisition, letting and fitting out of data centres, storage contracts
- software and mobile app development agreements
- reputation protection
- technical and strategic legal advice in respect to emerging technologies e.g. blockchain technology and tokenised assets
- legal mentoring and advice for early-stage tech companies with our M:Tech programme
Experience
- Employment:
- Advising an number of tech companies on issues around employment status in relation to the "gig" economy.
- Advising on start-up and scale up issues for companies, along with business protection, breach of restrictive covenants, team moves and data theft issues.
- Betting & Gaming:
- Advised Intertain Group Limited in relation to the acquisition of Jackpotjoy site and business partnership with Gamesys Limited for an initial consideration of £425.8m.
- Advised the management sellers of Easynet on its acquisition by Interoute for £402m.
- Advised two of the founders of PartyGaming Plc on its £4.64b IPO and the subsequent merger with bwin Interactive Entertainment AG.
- Technology disputes:
- Advising on a range of disputes in relation to Standard Essential Patents, including disputes over patent infringement/essentiality and validity, and in relation to the negotiation of FRAND (fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory) licensing terms.
- Advising on infringement and validity issues relating to patents across a range of technologies including electronics, telecoms, software and mechanics.
- Acting for Hewlett Packard on a wide range of matters.
- Advised Microsoft on various trade mark and copyright infringement claims including counterfeit software, misuse of Certificates of Authenticity (COAs) and other licences, and in the successful application of multi-million pound injunctive actions.
- Represented Blueback Reservoir AS in its defence of a copyright infringement and database rights claim from Ikon Science Limited in respect of the source code for a software product.
- Technology, Media & Telecommunications:
- Advised Strand Partners Limited (Nomad) and Teather & Greenwood Limited on the £8.2m placing and admission to AIM of AdEPT Telecom Plc, a non-network, UK telecom company. AdEPT started trading with a market capitalisation of £29.5m.
- Advised DHX Media on its acquisition of Ragdoll Worldwide Ltd from BBC Worldwide for £17.4m.
- Biotech:
- Advised Quotient Bioscience Group on its £35m fundraising from US private equity house TA Associates Inc.
- IT Contracts:
- Advised various start-ups in the FinTech, wearables, betting & gaming, transport & logistics and retail spaces on their licensing contracts.
- Advised various financial institutions on their IT procurement contracts.
- Advised various businesses on their cloud computing contracts.
- Gaming:
- Acted for FUT Coins Limited, an online business selling the delivery of virtual coins then used to buy players and other items within the FIFA video games.
- Representing Nintendo in matters involving circumventing devices used to play unofficial games.
- Blockchain:
- Working with a high-profile government client in the UAE to develop their strategic, legal and technical policy and approach to blockchain technology.
- Advising HM Land Registry on the first blockchain-based transfer of residential property in the UK.