Lev & Berlin represents many of the world’s preeminent market and survey research companies and trade groups as well as numerous sector-leading software, Internet and information technology businesses.   Our clients continually purchase, sell, collect and license data, software, copyrights, patents, trademarks and other intellectual property.  As a result, we have developed extensive experience counseling clients on technology and privacy law matters.   A representative sample of the different areas of our technology and privacy law practices is described below. 

TECHNOLOGY

We assist both sellers and purchasers of software, technology and other intellectual property draft and negotiate a wide range of agreements, such as:

• License agreements;
• Maintenance and support agreements;
• Service level agreements (SLAs);
• Strategic alliances, value-added reseller (VARs) and dealer agreements;
• Outsourcing and data processing agreements;
• Hosting agreements;
• Source code escrow agreements;
• Website development agreements;
• IT consulting services agreements; and
• Confidentiality and non-competition agreements.

In addition, we regularly advise both start-up and established on-line commercial ventures in a variety of contexts, such as informational, e-commerce and social networking websites.  We draft legal terms and conditions, user codes of conduct, and privacy policies and assist with general website legal compliance (for example, with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act).   Our market research clients regularly ask us to assist with respect to marketing, promotional and sweepstakes law compliance.

As part of our role as a legal and business adviser, we strive to support the growth of our clients.    We have a sophisticated securities practice, and have served as counsel in numerous M&A deals, venture financings and private placements for our clients in software, Internet and other technology-based industries. 

PRIVACY

We field questions about the emerging and expanding web of state, federal and international privacy and data protection regulations on a daily basis.  Our clients ask us to advise on a broad range of privacy and data protection matters, including: privacy policies and procedures; security breaches; information handling; regulatory investigations and inquiries; global compliance; cross-border data transfers and processing; commercial transactions; email and telemarketing regulation; and legislative advocacy.  We can also assist with employee training and compliance audits.  Over the course of counseling our clients, we have helped our clients comply with every major U.S. privacy and data security law as well as numerous international regulations, such as:

• CAN-SPAM;
• Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”) and the Do Not Call Registry;
• The FCC Fax Advertising Rule;
• HIPAA, HITECH and Business Associate Agreements;
• Gramm-Leech-Bliley;
• Children's Online Privacy Protection Act ("COPPA");
• EU Data and e-Privacy Directives and the US Department of Commerce’s Safe Harbor;
• Canada 's PIPEDA;
• California 's Online Privacy Statute, Massachusetts’ Data Privacy Standard, Connecticut’s Social Security Number protection law and other similar state data protection and data breach notification statutes; and
• The FTC’s behavioral advertising and tracking cookie guidelines and rules.

Companies that maintain consumer and other personal information need to be attentive to privacy and data protection issues and take steps to lessen the risk of loss of the sensitive information in their possession. Serious legal, public relations and business problems confront companies that do not correctly handle personal information. We endeavor to use our in-depth understanding of our clients’ businesses and these laws and regulations to provide practical solutions to help our clients to comply within the everyday commercial realities they face.