UK: Latest trends in technology disputes

Norton Rose Fulbright LLP’s Cyber and Technology team recently hosted a roundtable dinner in London, bringing together technology lawyers and a diverse group of clients from leading financial institutions and tech-driven businesses. The topic of the evening was latest trends in technology disputes, and the event sparked lively and insightful discussions on the evolving landscape of technology litigation, with dialogue around the table often drifting to how organisations are navigating and managing tech disputes as they focus on their digital transformation journeys.

Guiding the conversation, and giving insights gained from being at the very coal face of where technology disputes reach the courts, were Matthew Lavy KC and Rebecca Keating of 4 Pump Court.  Matthew offered his perspective on predicted and current trends, noting that contrary to some predictions made, traditional and/or agile project delivery/implementation related disputes remain front and centre, together with disputes over stark mis-matches between what a customer thought they were buying, and what was actually delivered. Perhaps the surge in AI related litigation, blockchain and smart contracts is yet to come.

Rebecca added depth to the discussion with insights on what AI litigation is happening, highlighting some key legal considerations and potential implications which could arise from the much-anticipated Getty Images v Stability AI case, the judgment of which we all await. 

Other topics debated included:

• The potentially high legal costs of litigating technology contracts (given the complexity of the cases).
• Effective dispute resolution procedures.
• The changing landscape of cyber disputes in light of AI enhanced methods of attack.
• Harvest now, decrypt strategies and possible future claims.
• The future of group litigation (including where to bring these claims and how the courts are handling these claims).

With Matthew and Rebecca also both being experts in various aspects of the law and regulation of AI, they fielded a range of challenging queries from around the table throughout the evening.