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Peter represents individuals, established companies and start-ups in a wide range of different industries, including health care, insurance, banking, financial services and information technology, with an emphasis on commercial transactional matters, including patent and software licensing, the Internet, privacy, and protection and enforcement of trademarks, patents, copyrights and other proprietary rights. Before joining Pierce Atwood in February 2000, Peter served as Intellectual Property and Technology Counsel in the Legal Division of UnumProvident Corporation (NYSE: UNM), a Fortune 500 company and the world’s leading disability insurer. Representative matters include: Conducted intellectual property audit for a leading financial services company and provided advice with respect to protection and commercialization of intellectual property assets. Designed framework and structure for an innovation protection program. Negotiated hundreds of software licenses and related service agreements on behalf of major banks, insurance and financial services companies, and medical practice and health care entities in connection with their acquisition of a wide range of different information technologies from large and small software suppliers around the world. Advised a leading Internet service provider with respect to the provisioning of managed hosting and data storage services, development of a privacy policy, hardware and software acquisition and licensing, software reseller agreements, and compliance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Drafted and negotiated royalty-based patent licenses with major semiconductor companies on behalf of a leading developer of digital audio processing technology. Drafted and negotiated numerous commercial contracts, including software licenses, software development, application hosting, joint development, strategic marketing and distributor (reseller/OEM) agreements, for a leading developer and provider of software products and services in the insurance industry. Counseled a leading designer and builder of embedded computer products on a number of different open source software licensing issues. Conducted intellectual property due diligence in various M & A transactions, drafted and negotiated employee invention assignment agreements, and prepared and negotiated intellectual property representations and warranties in numerous purchase/sale agreements. Early in his career, Peter practiced law with the Wall Street firm Chadbourne & Parke LLP in New York. Education.He received his J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in Philadelphia. He is a magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Rutgers College, where he received a BA degree in Economics and was a Henry Rutgers Scholar. Professional Activities Peter is an adjunct professor at the University of Maine School of Law, where he teaches software licensing and copyright law. Peter also currently serves by appointment as a member of the Information Technology Board of the Maine Technology Institute, with responsibility for reviewing grant request proposals and making recommendations for funding new commercialization projects in Maine’s IT sector. MTI is a non-profit organization created and funded by the State of Maine to encourage, promote, stimulate and support research and development activity leading to commercialization of new products and services in targeted technology sectors. The primary objective of MTI is to provide seed investment grants to private companies and research laboratories that will increase the level and the pace of research and development and create new jobs. | 