PROBLEM: The software vendor and customer have negotiated and signed a contract for software development, but as the work progresses, the vendor and customer disagree as to what work was included for the price, with the customer wanting many changes but not wanting to pay more. SOLUTION: The Wiemerslage Law Firm will assist in drafting the statement of work that details the work to be done and at what prices, plus provide for change order processes to address "mission creep", so both parties will get what they expected when they signed the contract.

 

For software developers or businesses planning to license or purchase software, hire consultants, or buy or sell computer hardware, Mr. Wiemerslage's substantial experience in these areas will help companies succeed in their goals of creating contracts to protect their interests, while finding the reasonable compromises that should get the deal closed in a timely fashion.  He is very proficient with the I. T. purchasing and licensing process, from drafting requests for proposals ("RFP") to drafting and negotiating the final contracts and advising on their implementation. Inventors with a patent need to license or sell their rights to their invention to make money; software developers may need to license their work; and corporations need to negotiate when purchasing software and other licenses.  Mr. Wiemerslage can also assist with copyrights, trademarks and trade secrets. Mr. Wiemerslage can provide great assistance in all these areas in drafting and negotiating licenses or sales agreements and intellectual property rights, and he can provide enormous help in the area of statements of work.

 

     Experience

 

Mr. Wiemerslage has more than 30 years experience in drafting and negotiating agreements, including very substantial legal experience in the Information Technology field, having negotiated multimillion dollar contracts with companies such as SAP, Dell, IBM, HP, Microsoft, etc. on behalf of his former employer, Marathon Oil Company, a Fortune 100 company for whom he was employed 13 years before leaving and setting up his own law practice in Colorado. These responsibilities included being the attorney on: purchase of 12,000 PCs through web-based reverse auction with subsequent negotiations, greater than $50 million mainframe and distributed server outsourcing contract, and $1/2 billion SAP implementation project.  He has drafted and negotiated contracts related to: software licensing, software development and marketing, hardware purchases and leasing, requests for proposals, professional consulting contracts, strategic alliances, outsourcing, telecommunications, internet contracts and non-disclosure agreements.  He has made numerous presentations to the public and to corporate management and employees.

 

      Intellectual Property

 

Mr. Wiemerslage provides legal services in the intellectual property areas of copyrights, trademarks and trade secrets. 

 

      Part of Your I.T. Team 

By being part of your technology team from the start of large projects, Mr. Wiemerslage can write the documents that reduce the time to get RFP’s written or responded to and contracts negotiated. Inexperienced I.T. attorneys can cause delays that cost clients potential sales or result in poor contractual terms that increase costs or create disputes with the other side after the contract is signed, hurting the reputation and future sales of the client. Mr. Wiemerslage's goals in contract drafting and negotiating are to protect his client, work to close the sale if reasonable terms can be agreed to, and produce contracts that both sides can live with after they are signed and will want to continue to do business together for years to come.

Mr. Wiemerslage concentrates on drafting and negotiating master contracts and drafting and negotiating statements of work. Many companies fail to see the value of statements of work until disputes arise as to what work is to be done per the agreed upon price. Customers often revise what they want done and without proper change order procedures, the customer may argue that the vendor should do more bur at the original contract price.

 

 

      Summary

 

The Wiemerslage Law Offices can assist your company with information technology and intellectual property issues, including drafting and negotiating software licenses and sales agreements, and protecting your copyrights, trademarks and trade secrets.