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Legal Holds

Dhamaka enables architecture teams to preserve data during IP disputes, patent litigation, regulatory inquiries, or internal investigations. Holds can target all data for an organization or specific project conversations and documents. Protected data is excluded from automated retention cleanup until the hold is released.

Why Legal Holds Matter for Architecture Teams

Engineering organizations face unique legal preservation requirements:

  • Patent litigation may require preserving all records related to system designs and technical decisions
  • IP disputes may require preserving evidence of when designs were created and who had access
  • Regulatory investigations may require preserving records related to system compliance or security practices
  • Internal investigations may require preserving records while investigating security incidents or policy violations

Dhamaka's legal hold system ensures that relevant data is preserved regardless of normal retention policies.

Supported Hold Reasons

  • Litigation — Patent dispute, IP infringement claim, or other civil litigation
  • Regulatory investigation — Compliance audit, security investigation, or regulatory inquiry
  • Subpoena — Court-ordered or regulatory production of technical records
  • Internal investigation — Security incident review, policy violation inquiry, or compliance review

What Can Be Preserved

Holds can protect any combination of:

  • Audit logs — Records of technical documentation access
  • Architecture discussions — AI-assisted conversations about system design
  • Technical documents — Design documents, specifications, and diagrams

Holds can be broad (all data for an organization) or targeted (specific project conversations or documents), allowing you to preserve only what's relevant while normal retention continues for unrelated data.

Hold Lifecycle

  1. Creation — Hold is created with documented reason, scope, and optional expiration
  2. Active — Protected data is excluded from all retention cleanup
  3. Release — Hold is released with documented reason; data becomes eligible for normal retention

All hold operations are recorded in the tamper-evident audit trail.

Architecture Scenarios

Patent Litigation

When involved in patent litigation, create a legal hold targeting all conversations and documents related to the relevant system designs. Include audit logs to preserve the record of who accessed what information and when. Maintain the hold until litigation concludes.

Security Incident Investigation

When investigating a security incident, create a hold on all data related to the affected systems. Preserve all access logs that may be relevant to the investigation until the matter is resolved.

Compliance Audit

When preparing for a compliance audit, create a targeted hold on conversations and documents related to the audit scope. Preserve audit logs showing access patterns. Release after audit concludes with documented findings.

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