Noerr advises BayWa subsidiary FarmFacts on digital farming alliance

Noerr has advised FarmFacts GmbH, a wholly-owned subsidiary of BayWa AG, on a complex digital farming project. Together with six agricultural machinery manufacturers, FarmFacts will develop a uniform foundation for the manufacturer-independent application of digital farming.

The objective of the alliance is to create an open machine data management software able to process all data generated by machines and other devices independent of the manufacturer. The farmer always remains the owner of the data. The software is Internet-based and meets German IT security standards for data protection and security. Under the name "NEXT Machine Management", the software will be integrated as a module into the FarmFacts farm management system and initially offered throughout Europe. In addition to FarmFacts, agricultural machinery manufacturers AGCO, Krone, Kuhn, Lemken, Pöttinger and Rauch are involved in the alliance.

Noerr provided comprehensive support to FarmFacts in the project. The instruction included preparing, drafting and negotiating all contracts with the members of the consortium. A key focus was also on issues relating to data ownership and rights to machine data in the environment of IoT applications. “This example shows that no legal regulation for data ownership rights is required to enable practical solutions for new business models,” emphasises Noerr partner Thomas Thalhofer. “In the given case, the best way to achieve the goal of an open platform was to assign ownership to the farmer.”

Thomas Thalhofer, who heads Noerr's Digital Business Group together with Karl Rauser, was the team lead on this project. Noerr’s Digital Business Group offers advice on all legal issues relating to digital business, from IT and data (protection) issues to aspects of distribution, trade and media law and digital compliance. This year, for example, the Group advised Bayer on the sale of its global digital farming business to BASF for the purpose of the Monsanto clearance and the insurance group “Die Bayerische” on the replacement of software systems for the insurer's composite business.

Advisors to FarmFacts/BayWa AG: Noerr LLP

Dr Thomas Thalhofer (team lead), Professor Alexander Liegl (both Digital Business), Dr Sebastian Janka (Antitrust); Associates: Dr David Bomhard, Dr Korbinian Hartl (both Digital Business, all Munich)

BayWa In-house Legal: Mark-Roderich Huber (General Counsel), Dr Korbinian Rombach, Thomas Böhne