Lawyer Profile

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Heather J. Meeker

O'Melveny & Myers LLP
  • Recognized Since:
    2008
  • Recognized in:
    Copyright Law
    Information Technology Law...
  • Law School:
    University of California - Berkeley
  • Website:
    http://www.omm.com
  • Location:
    2765 Sand Hill Road
    Menlo Park, CA 94025

Heather Meeker advises technology clients on intellectual property matters. Her practice focuses on counseling in the following areas:

  • Technology transactions, including licenses, channel sales agreements, development agreements, university technology transfer, and consumer contracting 
  • Open source software licensing, including IP strategy, compliance, transactions, and disputes Technology and IP issues in mergers and acquisitions
  • Copyright, patent, trademark, trade secret, and other IP matters

 Heather has achieved national and international recognition for her leadership in the field of intellectual property law. Drawing on her technical knowledge and experience, she approaches matters with a practical and business focus. Heather handles technology transactions and intellectual property-related aspects of mergers and acquisitions for companies in all technology sectors and for non-technology companies doing technology deals, with an emphasis on IT and software.

Prior to joining O’Melveny, Heather practiced at an AmLaw 20 firm, where she served as chair of the firm’s IP/IT Licensing and Transactions Group, as well as the co-managing shareholder of its Silicon Valley office.

Lawyer Bio

Heather Meeker advises technology clients on intellectual property matters. Her practice focuses on counseling in the following areas:

  • Technology transactions, including licenses, channel sales agreements, development agreements, university technology transfer, and consumer contracting 
  • Open source software licensing, including IP strategy, compliance, transactions, and disputes Technology and IP issues in mergers and acquisitions
  • Copyright, patent, trademark, trade secret, and other IP matters

 Heather has achieved national and international recognition for her leadership in the field of intellectual property law. Drawing on her technical knowledge and experience, she approaches matters with a practical and business focus. Heather handles technology transactions and intellectual property-related aspects of mergers and acquisitions for companies in all technology sectors and for non-technology companies doing technology deals, with an emphasis on IT and software.

Prior to joining O’Melveny, Heather practiced at an AmLaw 20 firm, where she served as chair of the firm’s IP/IT Licensing and Transactions Group, as well as the co-managing shareholder of its Silicon Valley office.

Read more on firm website
  • Lawyer of the Year Badge
  • Lawyer of the Year Badge

Education:

  • University of California - Berkeley, J.D., graduated 1994
  • Yale University, BA, Economics, Magna Cum Laude, graduated 1979

Bar Admissions:

  • California, The State Bar of California
 

Court Admissions:

  • US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
  • US District Court for the Northern District of California
  • US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit

Affiliations:

  • Restatement of the Law, Copyright, The American Law Institute - Adviser
  • American Bar Association - Member
  • American Law Institute, 2006-Present - Member
  • Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights for the San Francisco Bay Area, 2006-Present - Member

Named "Lawyer of the Year" by Best Lawyers for:

  • Information Technology Law, San Jose (2018)
  • Information Technology Law, San Francisco (2012)
 

Recognized in The Best Lawyers in America for work in:

  • Copyright Law
  • Information Technology Law
  • Litigation - Intellectual Property
  • Litigation - Patent
 

Awards:

  • Daily Journal "Top 30 California IP Lawyer," 2005
  • Silicon Valley Business Journal, "Women of Distinction," 2006 and 2007
  • James T. Caleshu Award, Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights, 2007
  • Euromoney Institutional Investor's Expert Guides, "Guide to the World's Leading Women in Business Law," 2012
  • Super Lawyers magazine, Northern California Super Lawyers, 2005-2013
  • IAM Magazine "The IAM Patent 1000," Licensing, 2012-2013
  • "IAM Licensing 250: The World's Leading Patent and Technology Licensing Practitioners," 2010
  • Chambers USA Guide, 2008-2013
  • Daily Journal, "25 Top IP Portfolio Managers (Licensing) in California," 2010, 2013
  • The Recorder "Women Leaders in Technology Law," 2013
  • The Legal 500 United States, 2013
  • Managing IP Magazine's World IP Handbook and Survey, "IP Stars-Top 250 Women in IP," 2013
  • Daily Journal "Top 100 Women Lawyers in California," 2013

Federal Clerkships:

  • United States District Court
 

State Clerkships:

  • California - Court of Appeals

Areas of Expertise:

  • Appellate
  • Commercial
  • E-Commerce
  • Education
  • Hardware
  • Intellectual Property
  • Internet
  • Licensing
  • Open-Source Software
  • Software
  • Software Licensing
  • Transactions
 

Lawyer Client Comments

Firm Details

O'Melveny & Myers LLP
http://www.omm.com
 
Headquarters
1999 Avenue of the Stars, Eighth Floor
Century City, CA 90067
(310) 553.6700
View Firm Profile
15 Office Locations
in 8 Countries

Belgium

Belgium

Brussels, Belgium

Blue Tower

Avenue Louise 326

Brussels 1050

Belgium

32 2 642 4100

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China

China

Beijing, China

Yin Tai Centre, 37th Floor

No. 2 Jianguomenwai Avenue

Chao Yang District

Beijing 100022

China

86 10 6563 4200

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Shanghai, China

Plaza 66, Tower 1

37th Floor

1266 Nanjing Road West

Shanghai 200040

China

86 21 2307 7000

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Hong Kong

Hong Kong

Central, Hong Kong

31st Floor, AIA Central

One Connaught Road

Central

Hong Kong

852 3512 2389

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Japan

Japan

Tokyo, Japan

Meiji Yasuda Seimei Building, 11th Floor

2-1-1 Marunouchi

Chiyoda-ku

Tokyo 100-0005

Japan

81 3 5293 2700

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Singapore

Singapore

Singapore, Singapore

9 Raffles Place #17-12

Republic Plaza II

Singapore 048619

Singapore

65 6593 1800

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South Korea

South Korea

Gangnam-gu

Gangnam-gu

Seoul, Gangnam-gu

23F Meritz Tower

382 Gangnam-daero

Seoul, Gangnam-gu 135-934

South Korea

82 2 6281 1700

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United Kingdom

United Kingdom

London, United Kingdom

Warwick Court

5 Paternoster Square

London EC4M 7DX

United Kingdom

44 20 7088 0000

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United States

United States

California

California

Los Angeles, CA

400 South Hope Street, 18th Floor

Los Angeles, CA 90071

United States

(213) 430.6000

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Menlo Park, CA

2765 Sand Hill Road

Menlo Park, CA 94025

United States

(650) 473.2600

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Newport Beach, CA

610 Newport Center Drive, 17th Floor

Newport Beach, CA 92660

United States

(949) 823.6900

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San Francisco, CA

Two Embarcadero Center, 28th Floor

San Francisco, CA 94111

United States

(415) 984.8700

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District of Columbia

District of Columbia

Washington, DC

1625 Eye Street, NW

Washington, DC 20006

United States

(202) 383.5300

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New York

New York

New York, NY

Times Square Tower

Seven Times Square

New York, NY 10036

United States

(212) 326.2000

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News & Media

Featured Publications

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Lawyer Case History

Areas of Concentration

  • Intellectual property licensing


Other Court Admissions

  • U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit

Significant Representations

  • Regularly advises software and technology companies on how to comply with the open source requirements of the GNU General Public License (GPL), GNU Library General Public License (LGPL), Artistic License, BSD licenses, and other open source or "free software" licenses and how to structure open source business models.
  • Regularly advises clients on complex issues of software copyright, including works made for hire, fair use, first sale doctrine, merger doctrine, distribution and publication thresholds, non-literal infringement, assignability in mergers and acquisitions, and clean room development.
  • Assists in copyright litigation matters pertaining to software copyright infringement, including derivative works analysis, scope of copyright license grants, and treatment of ephemeral copies.
  • Regularly advises clients on complex issues relating to software patents, including patent exhaustion, implied licensing, patent misuse, SSO formation, and participation in SSOs.
  • Regularly advises clients regarding intellectual property issues related to scripting, schema, macros and other high-level programming techniques.
  • Represented Chrysler on information technology procurement matters, 2013-2014.
  • Represented Open Compute Project Foundation on intellectual property matters, 2013-2014.
  • Assisted Mozilla Corporation with negotiation of agreements to support manufacturing rollout of Firefox OS, 2013.

Part 2

  • Represented Amazon.com in multiple acquisitions of technology businesses, 2013.
  • Represented Tidepool on drafting of Tidepool Open Access to Health Data Software License, 2013.
  • Represented Google on open source licensing matters in Oracle America Corp. v. Google, Inc., 872 F. Supp. 2d 974 (N.D. Cal. 2012) (holding that Google's use of application programming interface (API) packages in connection with original code for the Android operating system did not infringe Oracle's copyrights in Java).
  • Advised Yahoo! regarding open source matters in the acquisition of Spreets by Yahoo!7, January 2011.
  • Represented ebrary on intellectual property matters in sale to Cambridge Scientific Abstracts, January 2011.
  • Represented Yahoo! on intellectual property matters in the acquisition of Dapper Inc., September 2010.
  • Represented Open Source Digital Voting Foundation in negotiation of intellectual property agreement with Rock the Vote, August 2010.
  • Represented Yahoo!, Inc. in intellectual property and technology matters related to acquisition of Associated Content, Inc., May 2010.
  • Represented Yahoo!, Inc. in intellectual property and technology matters related to acquisition of Citizen Sports, March 2010.
  • Advised on intellectual property matters relating to Starwood Capital Group's proposed reorganization plan regarding the bankruptcy of Extended Stay Hotels, March, 2010.

Part 3

  • Represented Yahoo! in equipment cluster provisioning agreement with Indian Institute of Technology in Mumbai, January 2010.
  • Represented Yahoo! on intellectual property matters in the acquisition of Maktoob.com, Inc., August 2009.
  • Represented Yahoo!, Inc. in open source matters related to acquisition of Xoopit, July 2009.
  • Represented Cisco Systems, Inc. in settlement of lawsuit with Free Software Foundation regarding compliance with GPL and LGPL, 2009.
  • Represented Data Intensive Cyber Infrastructure Foundation in matters relating to organization and release of iRODS software.
  • Counseled Autodesk on matters relating to open source release of CS-MAP software via the OSGEO Foundation, August 2008.
  • Represented Sony Ericsson in issues relating to formation of Symbian Foundation.
  • Represented a large, public consumer device company in open source strategy and formation of an open source foundation with related patent policies.
  • Represented Samsung Electronics on intellectual property matters in strategic alliance with Clairvoyante Laboratories, June 2008. 
  • Represented DiviTech A/S on intellectual property matters in an acquisition by Cisco Systems, June 2008.
  • Represented Yahoo! on open source and intellectual property matters in acquiring Inquisitor, May 2008.

Part 4



  • Represented Yahoo! on open source and intellectual property matters in acquiring IndexTools, April 2008.
  • Represented Yahoo! on open source and intellectual property matters in acquiring Maven Networks, February 2008.
  • Represented Clearwell Systems, Inc., in negotiation of reseller agreement with Hewlett Packard for the Clearwell eDiscovery Platform., January 2008.
  • Represented Yahoo! on open source issues in acquisition of Zimbra, Inc., September 2007.
  • Represented VMWare in collaboration agreement with Intel for joint development, marketing and industry initiatives for virtualization related to Intel's investment in VMWare and VMWare's initial public offering, July 2007.
  • Represented Nanodynamics on intellectual property licenses, development agreement and related matters regarding nanotechnology applications in joint venture transaction with Shell Technology Ventures to create Epik Energy Solutions, June 2007.
  • Represented Yahoo! on open source issues in acquisition of Right Media Inc., April 2007.
  • Assisted Boingo Inc. with dual licensing code release for wireless device software, 2006.
  • Assisted Autodesk with open source matters related to MapServer Foundation creation and code release, 2006.
  • Represented Mozilla Foundation and Corporation in negotiation of marketing agreement with Yahoo! regarding Firefox browser search box, December 2004 and December 2005.

Part 5

  • Represented Mozilla Foundation in negotiation of agreements related to online store, 2004-2005.
  • Prepared intellectual property policies, contribution policies and licensing strategies for Alfresco Software's open source content management product, June 2005.
  • Advised on open source issues related to release of Google Video Viewer, June 2005.
  • Advised MagnaChip Semiconductor on intellectual property issues related to acquisition of IC Media Corp., March 2005.
  • Represented antibody and reagent manufacturer Zymed Laboratories, Inc. on intellectual property issues related to its acquisition by Invitrogen Corporation, January 2005.
  • Prepared intellectual property policies, contribution policies and licensing strategies for Active Endpoints, Inc. and ActiveBPEL, LLC, 2004.
  • Advised Ordinate Corporation regarding Telephone Based Testing Services Agreements with Educational Testing Service, March 2004.
  • Advised VA Software, Inc. regarding Slashdot T-Shirt Contest, July 2003.
  • Advised on intellectual property matters in sale of Synecor LLC's bioabsorbable stent startup to Guidant Corporation, April 2003.
  • Advised on open source and intellectual property matters in Network Associates' acquisitions of Intruvert Networks, Entercept Security Technologies, Deersoft and Traxess, 2002-2003.
  • Advised on sale of New Focus' tunable laser product line to Intel, May 2002.
  • Advised on intellectual property matters in acquisition of KMT Semiconductor from Kobe Steel by Micron Technologies, February 2001.

Part 6

  • Represented MyHomeKey.com regarding co-branding/investment deals with Keyspan, Sempra and Entergy, 2000.
  • Advised on purchase agreement for Komag sale of disk media assets to Western Digital, May 1999.
  • Represented Eloan on its international licensing and joint venture program, 1999.
  • Represented CitySearch on its international licensing and joint venture program, 1999.
  • Represented CitySearch in co-market agreement with Metrocard (NY Metro Transit), 1999.
  • Represented Autobytel.com on its international licensing and joint venture program, 1998-1999.
  • Advised RealNames on strategic alliance with NSI, December 1998.
  • Advised Phillips NA, Flat Panel Displays on strategic alliance with Who?Vision, September, 1998.
  • Advised on intellectual property matters, license and service agreements in connection with CitySearch merger with Ticketmaster Online, August 1998.
  • Designed and coded software from accounting systems to online educational testing on a variety of languages and platforms.
  • Knowledge of FORTRAN, BASIC, PERL, C, C++, and Java.