USF Tech Transfer and the College of Engineering will host intellectual property attorneys Steve Gardner and Heather Buchta, partners at the law firm Quarles & Brady LLP. They will give a presentation, “Open Source Licenses and Academic Tech Commercialization: A choose your own adventure story,” on Wednesday, March 6th at 2 p.m. in the College of Engineering, Room 109. The presentation will also be available on Microsoft Teams.
The presentation will compare the legal impacts of a variety of open source licenses and expound on what they do, and do not, permit. They will also analyze the impact of each type of license on possible future commercialization and collaboration paths, including how they might affect plans for a startup, how tech companies might consider them, and how they can allow for collaboration and iteration while preserving avenues for future commercialization.
Buchta advises on information technologhy and data privacy with an additional focus on trademark and copyright matters. With clients in the hospitality, health care, manufacturing, consumer services abnd other industries, she focuses on software agreements, IT outsourcing, privacy programs and compliance, trademark prosecution and licensing, copyright prosecution and licensing, electronic contracting and technology development deals.
Gardner is an intellectual property lawyer who works with both national and startup companies, research institutions and other IP owners to maximize the commercial value of their inventions and enforce IP rights. He has counseled clients on a wide variety of technologies, including software, magnetic resonance imaging, CT imaging, medical devices, industrial equipment, semiconductor chip manufacturing methods, artificial intelligence (AI), deep learning, neural networks, liquid crystal display devices, LED manufacturing, and processors and electronic controllers.