.jpg)
Delta Insurance has been showcasing its technology liability products to startups and tech companies across New Zealand, participating in a series of seminars for NZ Tech Week – ‘With new innovation comes new risks’.
The seminar focuses on the tech sector as New Zealand’s third largest export, and explores the new and emerging risks facing the industry as it battles new exposures, increasingly higher levels of liability and highly litigious overseas markets.
“Delta’s clients are primarily small startups for whom technology liability insurance starts out as more of a grudge purchase,” explains Delta Insurance financial lines manager and senior underwriter John Moore. “We also insure large data companies and paymarks, and we’re the largest technology liability insurer in New Zealand that covers both domestic and overseas operations.”
Although the product is sometimes considered a ‘grudge purchase’, holding technology liability insurance is a legal requirement for many companies with operations overseas, and is becoming increasingly relevant as New Zealand businesses expand into highly litigious jurisdictions such as the United States.
The product protects against all IP litigation costs including patents, and also covers loss of information, PR expenses, project delays and other risks.
“The policy provides cover for all defence costs in the case of litigation,” Moore explains. “You would get access to technology and IP specialist lawyers who have that understanding on a global stage, and it would pay for all incurred damages.”
“A lot of these conflicts do happen behind closed doors and you only really see the high-scale matters, the likes of Samsung and Apple suing each other for IP,” he continues. “So these seminars are about passing on our knowledge to startups, advisers and technology firms and encouraging them to learn from the mistakes other companies have made. IP claims are very prevalent in North America where New Zealand companies have done particularly well, and if something does go wrong, it will cost you heavily.”
