Digital dictation providers that own intellectual property rights attaching to their data storage systems could prevent solicitors from accessing their data if they terminate the contract, lawyers were warned this week.

Simon Shooter, IT partner at City firm Barlow Lyde & Gilbert, said solicitors should make it clear in their contracts with providers that they must be given unimpeded access to their data to avoid problems.


Data: providers deter solicitors from switching to other suppliers
Where digital dictation providers use their own technology to store data, ownership of the intellectual property rights attaching to the storage systems may be used to deny solicitors access to the data itself - to deter solicitors from switching to another supplier.


Mr Shooter said: 'Some suppliers will say you can have access to data, but not to the format the data is held under. Solicitors have to be canny about the contract they enter into to ensure that no such poison pill is allowed. It should be clear that the intention of the contract is for ownership of the data to rest with the solicitor and not the supplier, with an unimpeded right to access the data.'


Meanwhile, digital dictation developer nFlow has committed itself only to use audio formats that are within the public domain or part of the standard Microsoft Windows package, where it will not own the intellectual property.


Jim Park, chairman of nFlow, said: 'Law firms should think seriously about any vendor claiming that their technology is the market standard and ask themselves if they want their intellectual property locked up in a format that [belongs to] the supplier. If they accept this they are effectively locking themselves into one supplier.'


Rob Lancashire, sales and marketing director at nFlow, added that claims that existing standards for data storage were outdated were likely to be unfounded. He said: 'As with all things in IT, the existing standards are continually being developed... In fact, the so-called new technologies are nothing more than old technology in new clothes.'


Technology consultant and Gazette columnist Charles Christian said: 'If solicitors are seriously considering using outsourcing, they need to ensure that it is not a proprietary product. If the system is generally compliant with Microsoft, that is the way to go. Firms tend to get digital dictation systems in and then realise that they can do more with it. They should look at their future plans and not just go for the cheapest option.'