AWS Finally Adds IP Protection To Customer Contracts

Took them a while! In what is clearly a move to appear more user friendly to customers, Amazon has removed a controversial little clause in the AWS customer agreement.

One that had been the center of a lot of speculation.

For years, potential customers had been wary of this clause in the customer agreement that Amazon Web Services had that prohibited customers from suing it over patent infringement. Naturally, businesses that were concerned, opted for other cloud providers.

In particular, companies that were concerned over whether or not they could trust Amazon with their intellectual properties.

But now, not only has AWS removed the non-asset clause, but it has also put in place a new policy that will protect its cloud customers if they are sued for patent infringement with regards to the services running on the world’s leading cloud platform.

This is how the updated cloud agreement reads:

“AWS will defend you and your employees, officers, and directors against any third-party claim alleging that the Services infringe or misappropriate that third party’s intellectual property rights, and will pay the amount of any adverse final judgment or settlement.”

All’s well that ends in a well, I always say!

This welcome change makes a lot of sense for Amazon, as the company is now under a great deal of pressure from its rivals in the highly competitive cloud computing space. Competitors like Microsoft, Google, even IBM and Alibaba are vying for attention from businesses all over the globe.

Microsoft, meanwhile, has already been offering a similar policy since February, in order to help protect its customers.

Good to see Amazon joining in, and making the necessary change.