IT Contracts Archives

Technology Law: A Comprehensive Annual Review 2024-2025

Sookman it year in review talk presentation

Computer and IT Law: The Year in Review 2024–2025 – Toronto Computer Lawyers Group Presentation

On June 19, 2025, I had the pleasure of presenting my annual “Computer and IT Law: The Year in Review” to the Toronto Computer Lawyers Group. This year’s talk covered legal developments across a wide range of topics including artificial intelligence, copyright, social media, privacy, cybersecurity, blockchain, online contracting and eCommerce.

As in past years, I prepared a comprehensive written paper to accompany the presentation.…

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Year(s) in review – IT, Internet, AI, IP, Privacy & Blockchain

I had the pleasure of presenting the annual Year in Review of IT/Internet law to the Toronto Computer Lawyers Group on June 6, 2024. It was great to see a packed-in person event of IT lawyers after COVID. This year the presentation featured over 75 cases from many countries including Canada, the U.S., U.K., China, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Australia

My presentation can be accessed at this link. The video recording of the presentation is accessible below. I blogged about some of the cases discussed and you can read all about them via links in the presentation.

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Top legal developments in e-commerce, privacy and intellectual property

Despite COVID-19, 2020 was an eventful year, chock full of impactful legal developments in e-commerce, technology, privacy, anti-spam, and intellectual property law. Here is a summary of my picks for the top legal developments.

e-commerce

Standard form online agreements and unconscionability

Online and in-App agreements are typically presented to users as “standard form”, “take it or leave it”, “boiler plate” forms. Most common are some variation of a “click-wrap”, “sign-in wrap”, or “browsewrap” agreement. They are used pervasively on websites and on Apps, among other locations.…

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Developments in computer, Internet and e-commerce law: the year in review (2017-2018)

I gave my annual presentation today to the Toronto computer Lawyers’ Group on “The year in review in Computer, Internet and E-Commerce Law”. It covers the period from June 2017 to June 2018. The developments include cases from Canada, the U.S. the U.K., Singapore, Australia, and other countries.

The developments are organized into the broad topics of:

Jurisdiction/Online Remedies/Conflicts of Laws
Hyperlinks/Search Results/Computer Generated Content
e-Commerce & Online Agreements
Technology Contracting
Privacy
Copyright
CASL.

The cases referred to are listed below.…

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SAP wins major lawsuit based on indirect use and named user license terms: SAP v Diageo

If you use software licensed by SAP you better read your license. If you have not yet acquired SAP software, you should make sure you use an experienced IT licensing lawyer before contracting. If you agreed to SAP’s standard license terms and use the software in a way not expressly permitted by the license it could cost you tens of millions of dollars in completely unexpected incremental license and maintenance fees. That is what happened to a UK company in a questionable decision released a few days ago in a case called SAP UK Ltd v Diageo Great Britain Ltd [2017] EWHC 189 (TCC) (16 February 2017) .…

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Limitations of liability in IT contracts: Atos v Sapient

For tech lawyers like me and many readers of this blog, it’s a rare treat when a Canadian court construes an IT contract and opines on clauses we see in agreements all the time. The case IT lawyers will want to read is Atos v Sapient, 2016 ONSC 6852

This case involved a contract dispute between the prime contractor Sapient and its subcontractor Siemens (now Atos). Here are some legal nuggets you might want to think about in your next IT contracts.…

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The year in review: developments in computer, internet and e-commerce law (2014-2015)

I gave my annual presentation today to the Toronto computer Lawyers’ Group on “The year in review in Computer, Internet and E-Commerce Law”. It covered the period from June 2014 to June 2015. The developments included cases from Canada, the U.S. the U.K. and other Commonwealth countries.

The developments were organized into the broad topics of: Online Agreements, Licensing/Technology Contracting, Privacy, Online Liability, Cyber-security and Copyright.

The cases referred to are listed below. My slides can be viewed after the case listing.…

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Representations, warranties and indemnities in IT transactions

Yesterday, Helen Aston and I spoke at IT.Can’s The 2003 Information Technology Law Spring Forum. Our topic was Representations, Warranties and Indemnities (in IT transaction) – A Primer. The slides we used as a conversation starter are shown below.

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Developments in Computer, Internet and E-Commerce Law (2011-2012)

Here are the slides used in my presentation to the Toronto Computer Lawyers Group earlier today, The Year in Review: Developments in Computer, Internet and E-Commerce Law (2011-2012). It covers significant developements since my talk last spring, Developments in Computer, Internet and E-Commerce Law (2010-2011).

The slides include a summary of the following cases:

Kraft Real Estate Investments, LLC v Homeway.com, Inc. 2012 WL 220271 (D.S.Car. Jan 24, 2012)

Swift v. Zynga Game Network, Inc., 805 F.Supp.2d…

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Developments in Computer, Internet and E-Commerce Law (2010-2011)

Here are the slides used in my presentation to the Toronto Computer Lawyers Group earlier today, The Year in Review: Developments in Computer, Internet and E-Commerce Law (2010-2011). It covers significant developements since my talk last spring.

The slides include a summary of the following cases and statutory materials:

Privacy:

Cite Cards Canada Inc. v. Pleasance, 2011 ONCA 3

Leon’s Furniture Limited v. Alberta (Information and Privacy Commissioner), 2011 ABCA 94

State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company v. Privacy Commissioner of Canada, 2010 FC 736

Nammo v.…

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