READI

(Rights for Electronic Access to and Delivery of Information)

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PARTIES TO THE AGREEMENT

Definition

Conventionally, the parties to an agreement represent the provider and the purchasers of information. But in certain cases, other parties may also be signatories.

Discussion

In most agreements, the parties represented are the buyer on the one hand and the seller on the other. But some licenses cover more than one entity on one or both sides (some contracts are written covering many separate legal entities). Other contracts (with universities or corporations, for example) may cover many sites in a single agreement. While there can be brief description of the "parties" in the initial article, a list of all the constituent components represented by the signing "party" normally appears in an Appendix. The contract should also affirm that the signer(s) have the right to commit the other parties noted to the obligations contained in the agreement.

Benefits

There should be few or no risks if all of the member parties to the agreement are informed and their relationships disclosed in the contract. A single contract governing many parties is often preferable to recording separate agreements with all concerned.

Risks

The greatest risk in signing agreements which require numerous sub-parties is that not all have been fully informed of their obligations under the contract, causing confusion and potential violations.

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