Kavitha Gupta's blog

Pre-arbitral steps: Indian law perspective Khaitan & Co India  January 25 2018 Overview Multi-tiered dispute resolution clauses prescribing pre-arbitral steps are common in commercial contracts in order to allow parties to: resolve their disputes in a non-adversarial set up; preserve commercial relationships; and save costs. On the other hand, prolonged negotiation may not only cause delays, but also allow an unscrupulous party to evade its contractual obligations. The most common pre-arbitral procedural mechanisms include: amicable and good-faith negotiation between the parties; meetings between the parties' key executives and representatives, to arrive at a settlement; mediation; or submitting the dispute to an expert or a non-binding decision-making person or body. Almost all contracts require performance of such pre-arbitral steps as a condition precedent to arbitration, but are they specifically enforceable? In other words, are pre-ar...

Mere Physical Contact Without Sexual Overtones Would Not Amount To Sexual Harassment At Workplace : Delhi HC [Read Judgment] BY: APOORVA MANDHANI NOVEMBER 2, 2017 1:36 PM 2.5K SHARES Change Font Size The Delhi High Court, on Tuesday, refused to ca... The Delhi High Court, on Tuesday, refused to categorize every unwelcome physical contact as sexual harassment. Justice Vibhu Bakhru explained, “Undoubtedly, physical contact or advances would constitute sexual harassment provided such physical cont... Read more at: http://www.livelaw.in/mere-physical-contact-without-sexual-overtones-not-amount-sexual-harassment-workplace-delhi-hc-read-judgment/

IP Indemnities in commercial agreements Reference  https://www.taylorwessing.com/synapse/ti-ip-indemnities-in-commercial-agreements.html November 2016 IP indemnities tend to cause a certain amount of concern to commercial parties in the context of commercial agreements. However, when used and drafted properly, they serve a vital purpose. What is an indemnity? An indemnity is an obligation given by one party to a contract to compensate the other for some defined loss. Typically the obligation relates to a specific clause within a wider commercial agreement e.g. within an IP licence agreement. Its chief purpose is to appropriately allocate risk between the contracting parties – although the appropriateness of that risk allocation will be coloured by the bargaining position of the parties. Risk allocation However, indemnities are not the principal mode of allocating risk within a contract – warranties are. To understand the role of an indemnity it is important to...

Give me a sign: what are the risks of accepting an electronic signature on a commercial contract? If your business accepts a commercial contract that has been signed electronically, there is a risk that the contract will not be enforceable against the person that had allegedly signed it if the electronic signature was applied without authority. To combat this risk, you may consider sending the electronically signed document back to the party that allegedly signed it to obtain their separate confirmation that they had in fact considered the document and applied their signature electronically. Recent contract law case This use of electronic signatures in contracts was recently considered by the New South Wales Court of Appeal [1] . Briefly, the facts of the case are: Williams Group Australia Pty Ltd ( Williams ), a supplier of building materials, approved a credit application which was electronically signed by IDH Modular Pty Ltd ( IDH ) using a technology called HelloFax. ...

Indemnities and commercial  contracts    What is an ‘indemnity’ and when is a Council likely to come across one? An indemnity clause is often found in commercial contracts. In traditional legal language, it is a promise to ‘hold harmless’ the other party, should a particular event occur. An example of where a Council might come across such a clause is in its procurement contracts (where the Council may ask the other party to give indemnities). An indemnity means making good any relevant loss that arises. The event typically includes a breach of the relevant agreement – but it might also extend to other events, including events over which the indemnifying party has no control. For the party receiving the benefit, it is rather like being insured against the loss. It is therefore obviously a very serious obligation. When considering an indemnity, you are really looking at a risk allocation issue: the party giving the indemnity is being asked to assume the risk of...

Top 20 Do's and Don'ts for Outsourcing - The Service Provider Perspective Published on June 2, 2017 Partner at DLA Piper I previously posted the top 20 do's and don'ts for outsourcing transactions from a customer/buyer perspective; obviously there are two sides to every story, so it is only fair to complete the picture with the service provider view of the world! Top 20 Do’s and Don’ts for Outsourcing Deals- the Supplier Perspective Do ensure that you have a properly constituted deal team from day one This will mean people who understand the numbers, those that grasp the wider commercial arrangements, the right technical people, legal people, a really good “deal lead” who will face off to the customer….and don’t forget the actual delivery team! Don’t ever say that a deal is “must win” Obviously there are projects that would be extremely good to win and also extremely painful to lose….but a bad deal will be bad news for years to come Do understa...