Business

Agreement titles are funny things.  In their best use they quickly describe the general subject matter of the contract.  For most situations a simple title is helpful.  E.g., "Services Agreement" helps differentiate between a contract for services and one for goods.  That is helpful.  Many contract titles are more descriptive (e.g., "License Agreement", "SaaS Agreement" or "Software Service Level Agreement" to describe the technology nature of the agreement). 

Where a client is using form contracts for several product or service offerings the title can help employees determine which form contract to pull, fill in the blanks and send to the customer, supplier or other third party.  That too can be a good use of titles.

Where it gets silly is when titles confuse the issue or say nothing with additional words.  Last week I handled a licensing agreement negotiation with a contract entitled "Mutual Agreement of Understanding."  The title not only does not describe anything, it is also redundant.  Doesn't "agreement" imply mutuality and understanding?  If so, why not just call it "Agreement"?  If the parties want something descriptive, "License and Reseller Agreement" may be better.  Just a thought.

A while back I saw one entitled "Consent Agreement."  Again, agreements by their nature imply the parties' consents.    I've seen others like "Business Agreement", "Agreement to Compromise" and "Legal Agreement".  Hmm.

In most cases it really doesn't matter.  Most contracts state that titles and headers are for convenience only and are not binding.  As long as the title doesn't imply something is in the contract that is not you should be fine.  But I do encourage approaching them with thought as they can be helpful descriptive tools.



~~~~~~~~
See also:

Funding Law - Investor Impatience
Random Thoughts on Private Equity
Funding Law - Know Your Numbers
Entrepreneurial Law - Developing a Good Business Model
Culture of Private Equity
A World of Private Equity
Rules of Funding
Entrepreneurial Law - Proof of Concept & Proof of Scale
Fatal Flaws in Leadership
Funding Law - Presentations to Investors