Technology, Media & Telecommunications (TMT)

We are a global technology, media and telecommunications focused law firm providing end-to-end and cross-border advice to a range of TMT businesses, from tech giants to disruptive scale-ups.

Embedded, cross-disciplinary counsel for TMT businesses

Legal cannot function as a standalone silo in the TMT sector. It needs to be deeply embedded within your business, and so do your external advisers.

Whether you are acquiring a competitor, launching a product into a new market, managing a high-stakes dispute or responding to a regulatory investigation, the legal questions do not sit in one discipline. They can cut across commercial strategy, transactions, regulatory considerations and disputes, and they often need to be answered together.

The regulatory, commercial and technological changes the TMT sector is facing mean the window between a decision and its legal consequence is shrinking. At Osborne Clarke, you work with lawyers who anticipate your specific business needs with  the speed and precision your market demands.

TMT law services for your business

The TMT sector is at an inflection point, with major shifts reshaping the sector and legal landscape surrounding it. Osborne Clarke can advise you on the pivotal legal trends faced by your business and the growth opportunities they present.

Digital regulation is no longer "emerging". It is operational

Digital regulation is no longer emerging; it is established and enforced. In the last five years, TMT businesses have had to absorb regimes such as the Digital Services Act, the Digital Markets Act, the EU AI Act, the Data Act, NIS2, the UK’s Digital Markets, Consumer and Competition Act (DMCCA) and the Online Safety Act (OSA). They are operational frameworks that reshape liability, drive changes to business models and redefine the relationships between businesses, their users, their sellers and their regulators. As a TMT business, you need advisers who can support you in recalibrating your strategy as new waves of digital regulation arrive.

Technology development has transformed legal risk

For software businesses, platform operators and anyone embedding machine learning into customer-facing products, the legal questions around AI liability are being tested in practice before the regulatory frameworks designed to answer them are fully in force. Questions around agentic AI sit at the intersection of product liability, data law and AI governance, and in many cases do not have settled answers yet. You benefit from working with a forward‑thinking, commercially focused team that can interpret current frameworks and forecast future changes.

Wide-ranging intellectual property protection

TMT businesses generate significant and high‑value intellectual property. Protecting and commercialising it demands a coherent legal strategy. We support our clients on every aspect of advising on and enforcing their intellectual property rights. This includes questions on licensing, copyright and open source compliance, complex content and rights questions for software companies, games studios and broadcasters, and high stakes patent litigation for hardware manufacturers, implementers, research and development organisations. Our work spans trade secrets and confidential information, brand and trade mark protection, standard essential patent and FRAND disputes, from advice and strategy through to cross‑border enforcement.

Regulatory divergence between major blocs is here to stay

Regulatory divergence between major blocs is now structural, not exceptional. The EU, US, UK, China and other key markets each take distinct positions on platform regulation, data law and AI governance. For a TMT business operating across borders, the question is no longer simply whether you are compliant in each jurisdiction. It is how conflicting or overlapping regimes interact with your commercial objectives, and what trade‑offs you are prepared to make.

Online platforms and marketplaces: We are an internationally integrated, market-leading group of online platform experts with experience across 150 digital platforms, ranging from social media platforms, e-commerce marketplaces and gig platforms, amongst many others.  

Software and IT Services: We work with SaaS businesses, tech enabled services and enterprise software providers across the full software life-cycle, from commercial contracts and data obligations through to complex technology disputes and high-value M&A.

Digital Media: We work with broadcasters, streaming platforms and publishers on content rights acquisition and licensing, co-production structures, distribution agreements, multi-territory regulatory compliance, advertising and sponsorship, and the legal questions arising from AI training data, as those questions work their way through courts globally.

Games and Interactive Entertainment: We advise across the full life-cycle of games businesses, from studio formation and publishing agreements through to cross-border M&A and potential disputes. We provide specialist knowledge of both the sector and regulatory landscape, including IP, platform dependency and regulatory exposure surrounding monetisation, loot boxes and age verification.  

Creative Industries: We advise agencies, brand owners and AdTech businesses on advertising compliance, data-driven marketing, AdTech contracts and disputes, from global creative networks to specialist digital businesses. We also support clients through M&A, investments and restructurings across the agency, production and AdTech ecosystem.

Hardware and Robotics: We advise hardware and robotics companies on product liability, IP ownership, potential disputes and supply chain risk, including investment and M&A where the value sits in proprietary technical IP. 

Telecoms and Digital Infrastructure: We advise network operators, alternative providers and infrastructure businesses across regulatory, commercial and transactional work, including the Electronic Communications Code, telecoms security, spectrum and pan-European infrastructure transactions. We also have extensive experience within disputes and patent litigation across the sector.