SIIA software audits explained

SIIA software defense law firm

The Software & Information Industry Association ("SIIA") is a private trade group (not law enforcement) that seeks to enforce the intellectual property rights (ex. copyrights in software programs) of its member companies such as Google, Facebook, Adobe and others.

Copyright lawyer Steve Vondran discusses what this entity is, explains some sample members and discussses in general what to do if you receive a software audit letter from one of the SIIA member companies or their intellectual property lawyers.

It is important to contact copyright counsel BEFORE you speak with the SIIA.  The things you say or disclose may come back to hurt the company and its officers and directors, especially if you admit to willful copyright infringement.  You could wind up paying huge damages and for some companies, they cannot afford it and may have to consider filing for bankrutpcy protection (Chapter 7, 11, or 13).

Our goal as an IP law firm is to help mitigate against this risk and help companies limit their legal liablity for software infringement.  There are many different defenses that can be explored, and we discuss some of these on our Software Audit Resource Page.

We offer LOW FLAT RATE LEGAL FEES, which for many companies is more affordable that paying a 10 or $20,000 retainer agreement to a copyright software firm that is going to bill you hourly on the case (which usually means it will drag on magically month after month sometimes with no visible end in sight).