Technology

Ian Hempseed

partner & LEAD CONTACT

• London
• commercial; charities & social enterprise; practitioners
• i.hempseed@hempsons.co.uk
• 020 7484 7530

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Up-to-date advice in the fast moving areas of IT and technology

IT is constantly evolving and new models of delivery are common as providers use new technologies to reach their markets in different ways. The internet has become the usual way for both public and private sector organisations to interact with their users and each other. The drive to become paperless has also forced many traditional legal transactions online with contracts being negotiated and information being shared through technological means. IT is no longer a luxury: it is a necessity. This is a complex legal area where the law sometimes struggles to keep pace with the technological change.

Helping our clients achieve a successful outcome requires not only relevant specialist legal knowledge, but a firm grasp of the technical aspects, an understanding of the market place and good project management skills. We have substantial knowledge and skills in these areas, acting for providers, purchasers and users of IT and technology in a variety of sectors. Please visit our Healthtech page to see how new technologies, digital services and other innovations are transforming healthcare and offering potential in both the NHS and the private healthcare sectors to deliver more efficient, flexible and higher quality services.

The team

Some of our IT lawyers have first hand experience of working with and within a variety of organisations from NHS bodies to software houses, from web developers to pharmaceutical companies. All have substantial experience advising a wide range of clients as private practice lawyers. All have a keen interest in new technologies and enjoy keeping up to date with the latest developments.

This combination of commercial experience and technical knowledge enables us to deliver effective and pragmatic advice that adds true value and to build deeper, more meaningful relationships with our clients.

Who we work with

We work with a broad range of clients from both public and private sectors including many healthcare organisations. We advise large sections of the NHS; nationally renowned and substantial charities, academic institutions and social enterprise clients; social care organisations and private sector clients acquiring IT and technology and software houses, IT providers and web and digital agencies providing technology and services to their clients.

Key services and issues

• Software licences
• Software as a Service arrangements
• Software development
• Mobile app development and licensing
• Website terms of use and terms of supply
• Privacy policies and cookie policies
• Data protection advice, including advice on e-marketing
• Advice on the use of digital signatures
• Advice on the legal issues relating to wearable technologies
• Advice on intellectual property issues in an IT context, for example ownership of IP on joint software development projects
• Hardware procurement, including sales and rental arrangements
• IT support and maintenance arrangements
• Software and website hosting arrangements
• Website development agreements or projects
• Advice in relation to the law governing online trading, including advice regarding distance selling
• Technology and intellectual property licensing, including licensing of digital content
• IT joint ventures and collaborations
• IT outsourcing contracts
• IT disputes
• Networking, infrastructure and telecoms agreements
• Online legality and defamation advice and disputes
• Advice on contracts for the development and exploitation of multi-media and e-learning products

 Our Work

• Greater Manchester Academic Health and Science Network (hosted by Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust) – advised on the procurement of an innovation partnership for the development and delivery of its ‘DataWell’ programme which allows a contracting authority to procure a provider(s) to work with it to research, develop and then exploit a service or supply that does not currently exist. This process is one of the first, if not the first, successfully concluded innovation partnership procurement process in Europe. Users will ultimately include NHS clinical commissioning groups, acute NHS trusts, NHS community trusts, local authorities and research institutions. For more information please click here
• Health apps – advising on development of healthcare apps for patients, including advising NHS Northern England Strategic Clinical Networks on its Deciding Right app for making care decisions and NHS South East Commissioning Support Unit  on its “Health Help Now” app to enable users to find the right service for their health needs;
• Greater Manchester West NHS Foundation Trust – advising on the call of a large IT services contract for clinical information system;
• CRM systems – advising a number of charitable organisations on the acquisition of Customer Relationship Management software to manage their donor and member details;
• Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust  –  advising in relation to its contract with Civica for the replacement of its current clinical information systems;
• Health and Social Care Information Centre  –  advising on establishing a high value framework agreement in relation to the purchase of digital mapping products;
• Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust  –  advising on the procurement of an Electronic Patient Records system;
• East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust  –  advising on the procurement aspects of its computer aided dispatch software contract for ambulance services;
• Advising a large social housing provider on a multi-million pound software acquisition and implementation programme, including software as a service and traditional software delivery methods, support and maintenance and data migration services;
• Advising a PLC on the procurement of an enterprise resource planning software application to manage its transport assets, including negotiating contractual documents with its US software supplier;
• Arthritis Research UK  –  advising on website and distance selling issues and online promotions and dealing with domain name piracy; and
• North West Strategic Health Authority –  we have advised on the purchase of an IT solution and multi-million pound software licensing transaction.  We have also given advice on a contentious matter involving ownership of domain names and website materials.

Hempsons were invaluable in helping us to design this innovation partnership procurement, helping us to get the best out of the process and guiding us through the challenges of the whole process. We believe that, thanks to Hempsons, we have been able to put a strong partnership together that will allow us to help transform health and care services in Greater Manchester.

Gary Leeming, Director of Informatics for Greater Manchester Academic Health Science Network