The warranty is among the most essential terms of a software license, as the provision often concerns the functionality and capability of the software. In essence, this is the promise of the licensor as to what the software will or will not do. Many warranties are the subject of concerted negotiations, but often the parties revert to boilerplate as part of a general tendency to forget the importance of the provision in favor of business terms such as price and product line. A licensor typically seeks to limit what it promises, while a licensee regularly seeks to establish that the licensor possesses good and marketable title in the software, that the software will function, and that the software is without any code susceptible to viruses.

These priorities often conflict, and particularly when warranty provisions are negotiated in a cursory fashion and memorialized with the bare minimum of relevant language. As one of the latest examples, on July 30, 2018, the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota issued its opinion in Prairie River Home Care v. Procura, holding that the software licensee’s claims for breach of contract and breach of warranty could survive a motion to dismiss, while the rescission claims could not. 2018 WL 3621208 (D. Minn.).

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