How you procure your software may affect your rights

How you procure your software may affect your rights
May 15, 2018 Bayo Oyagbola

An English Court of Appeal has decided that purchased software delivered through an online portal does not constitute a sale of goods.

The Civil Division of the Court of Appeal in England has drawn a distinction between software delivered through a physical disc and software that is downloaded through an online portal. In Computer Associates UK Limited v. The Software Incubator Limited, [2018] EWCA Civ. 518, the Court of Appeal presided over by Lady Justice Gloster held that software delivered by physical discs constitute a “Sale of Goods” for the purposes of the Commercial Agent (Council Directive) Regulations 1993 but that purchased software delivered through an online portal does not constitute a “Sale of Goods”.