AI CONTRACT CHECKLIST

How should you review the deletion standard in an AI product contract? This checklist includes a sample clause and the drafting issues raised by each sentence. It covers the efforts qualifier, backup carve-outs, the vendor's internal standards as the deletion method, who decides technical feasibility, and the de-identification fallback.

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CONTRACTSCON 2026

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FROM OUR SPONSOR

This guide from Spellbook, our sponsor, explains how in-house legal teams standardize contracts with templates, clause libraries, and playbooks. It identifies which contract types fit standardization, such as NDAs, offer letters, and low-value vendor agreements, and which do not. It describes the risks of over-standardizing, including template rot and lost leverage on high-value deals. It also includes a seven-step process for building contract standards and the governance practices that keep them current. The guide is available as a download.

Read the guide from Spellbook →

MEME OF THE WEEK

It's not my fault that I'm completely annoyed by my counterparty's negotiation approach. I'm not the one who woke up and decided to be irritating and difficult.

#TheContractStruggleIsReal

CONTRACT TIP

This contract tip is about buying or selling goods without a contract.

Let's be real. It happens.

- Your supply chain buyer sends a purchase order without any terms attached.

- Your Operations VP calls a supplier and submits an order by phone.

Yes, we lawyers prefer to have something in writing. And the Statute of Frauds requires it for goods valued at over $500. But, as Mick Jagger reminded us, you can't always get what you want.

It is not the end of the world.

Because in most cases, these deals are smaller one-off purchases or sales. There is still a risk, but a very different risk than buying millions of dollars of goods on an ongoing basis.

And while you don't have a contract, you are not entirely exposed. You still have insurance as a back-stop. There also are product liability laws that protect you.

There are statutory terms that may provide default terms and conditions for you. The Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) would cover deals between U.S. parties. The international equivalent is the U.N. Convention on the International Sale of Goods (CISG).

The UCC and CISG have gap-filling terms that provide default terms when the parties have not agreed.

All that said, I do worry A LOT when we need other protections not provided by insurance, product liability laws, and gap-filling under the UCC and CISG. These worries are usually when we incorporate the purchased good into ours, when it is an inherently dangerous product, or when there is intellectual property involved.

Have you ever dealt with problems after someone bought goods without a contract? How did it work out?

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If you prefer training events, I hope you’ll join us at ContractsCon, our annual contract training extravaganza. We’ll be in Philadelphia on October 13-14, 2026, and virtually on October 21-22, 2026. The training is sophisticated, the speakers’ costumes are ridiculous, and the connections are real. Click here to learn more about ContractsCon 2026 in Philadelphia.