1 · What Law Is
The map: which areas of law govern what, and the rule-principle model - why principles get balanced against each other while rules deliver a definite answer at the level of action.
Legal Aspects of Technology Management
Legal Aspects of Technology Management - NIT Northern Institute of Technology Management, Hamburg · part of my Technology Management MBA · study notes for revision.
This module is the one that stops a technology manager from signing something they do not understand. It runs across seven long sessions taught by a practising IT-law attorney, with one session co-taught by an intellectual property manager from industry, and it moves from the foundations of what law even is through to the newest rulebook of all, the EU AI Act.
The through line is practical rather than academic. Almost every session ends with a group task that puts the class straight into the position of someone who has to produce something: draft the non-disclosure agreement, work out what “reasonable steps” actually means, decide what belongs in a cloud contract, classify an AI system. The law is taught as a set of decisions you will have to make and be able to defend, not as a body of doctrine to admire.
These are study notes for revision. Every chapter ends with a key-terms table, a short self-test with answers, and a one-minute recap. Where the slides named a topic without teaching it, or set it as a research question, the page says so plainly instead of filling the gap with material the course did not cover.
The arc of the module
Section titled “The arc of the module”Foundationswhat law is · contracts · cross-border
→DataGDPR in practice
→Secrets & dealsNDAs · cooperation · cloud
→IP, skills & AIthe toolkit and the newest rulebook
Part A - Foundations
Section titled “Part A - Foundations”2 · Contract Law
A contract as law the parties write for themselves: the claim-base structure, why the type of contract decides how much you have to write, and the twenty points a commercial agreement has to settle.
3 · Cross-Border Trade
Whose law applies when the parties sit in different countries: Rome I and Rome II, the CISG, Incoterms, and the ICC arbitration clause with the four elements you have to adapt.
Part B - Data protection
Section titled “Part B - Data protection”4 · Data Protection Foundations
The GDPR from the ground up: personal data and processing, controller against processor, the Article 5 principles, the lawful bases, consent, special categories and the data protection officer.
5 · Breaches & IT Security
What you must do when it goes wrong: the notification duty and its deadline, records of processing, technical and organisational measures, video surveillance, and the data protection impact assessment.
6 · Liability & Transfers
Who carries the risk inside the company, what accountability demands in evidence, and what Schrems II did to sending personal data outside the EU.
Part C - Secrets and agreements
Section titled “Part C - Secrets and agreements”7 · Trade Secrets & NDAs
Protecting what is not registered: the three-part definition of a trade secret, why the reasonable-steps limb decides most cases, and what a non-disclosure agreement has to do.
8 · Cooperation & Cloud
The contracts that govern working together: framework cooperation agreements, background against foreground IP, service terms, and what a cloud agreement must settle about your data.
Part D - Intellectual property
Section titled “Part D - Intellectual property”9 · The IP System
The map of the rights: what IP protects and what it refuses to protect, the WTO and WIPO, TRIPS and the Paris and Berne Conventions, and the right of priority.
10 · Patents
The strongest right and the hardest to get: novelty, inventive step and industrial applicability, why disclosure before filing is the expensive mistake, the claims, and the route from filing to grant.
11 · Trademarks, Designs & Copyright
The rest of the toolkit: what a design right covers, absolute and relative grounds for refusing a trademark, copyright arising without registration, and how licensing agreements are built.
Part E - Skills and AI
Section titled “Part E - Skills and AI”12 · Communication & Negotiation
Getting the deal you just learned to draft: the Pyramid Principle and the magical number seven, storytelling, negotiation preparation and tactics, and the physical side of being persuasive.
13 · Law on Artificial Intelligence
The newest rulebook: the legal and ethical challenges, the wider frameworks, and the EU AI Act with its risk tiers, its roles and obligations, AI and IP, and what an AI contract has to settle.