Buying Proprietary Software? Protect Your Organization from Open Source Surprises

Buying Proprietary Software? Protect Your Organization from Open Source Surprises

Open source software has probably been the biggest driver of complex software solutions in the last decade. Access to a large variety of quality, peer-reviewed software has accelerated product development, reduced product introduction intervals and lowered the costs for producers of software and for those of us who leverage third party software in our projects.

Many of us have heard about the trouble that organizations have come across when using open source improperly… remember Cisco/Linksys, Katzer, and the BusyBox chronicles? You may think that your organization is safe because you are buying proprietary software. However, if your software supplier unknowingly incorporated open source into its product, your organization may face unexpected legal and financial consequences arising from open source licensing obligations and the resulting intellectual property infringement claims. The good news is that there are various tools available at your disposal that can assist your organization in protecting itself from such open source surprises, such as contractual measures such as representations and warranties and indemnities; and extra-contractual tools such as software audits and a structured Open Source Software Adoption Process (OSSAP).

Some basics about commercial contracts relevant to software purchases

Commercial contracts include various provisions that protect and allocate risk among buying and selling parties. Among the most important are representations and warranties (“reps and warranties”) and indemnities. Reps and warranties are assurances made by one party that are intended to provide certainty to the other party that relies on them. For example, a hypothetical software company (“Softco Supplier”) may represent and warrant that it owns all of the intellectual property rights in the software it sells. If Softco Supplier does not in fact own all of the intellectual property rights in the software, the buyer (“Softco Buyer”) has a right to claim damages for Softco Supplier’s misrepresentation.

However, in many instances it is impossible for contracting parties to fully guarantee the accuracy of a statement. In these cases, parties opt to provide reps and warranties that are qualified by the knowledge of the party providing them. These types of reps and warranties can be problematic from the perspective of the party that seeks to rely on them. We will return to this in the following section, which specifically deals with the application of reps and warranties, and indemnities to open source.

Indemnities provide security against losses that are triggered by the occurrence of contractually specified events. Unlike reps and warranties, recovery from indemnities is not contingent upon whether a misrepresentation was made. In our example, if Softco Supplier (the “indemnitor”) indemnifies Softco Buyer (the “indemnitee”) for any intellectual property infringement claims against the software being sold, then in the event that such claims arise, Softco Supplier is obligated to compensate Softco Buyer for its losses.

Reps and warranties vs. indemnities in an open source world