Richard D. Harris

Richard "Rick" Harris, resident in the firm's Hartford office, chairs the firm's Technology, Telecommunications, and Outsourcing practice group. Rick concentrates on commercial transactions with special emphasis on intellectual property and technology issues. He is experienced in structuring, drafting documentation for, and negotiating a wide variety of contractual transactions, including licensing and transfer of technology and intellectual property, including copyrights, patents, trade secrets, and trademarks. Rick has advised software publishers, developers, integrators, distributors, computer and equipment manufacturers, service providers, biotechnology and life sciences companies, medical research organizations, joint ventures, authors, and inventors in the acquisition, protection, and exploitation of intellectual property and the negotiation of licenses and other transactions, including commercialization of university-developed technology and patents. He represents both licensors and licensees and others seeking rights to use and/or own third-party intellectual property rights. In addition, he regularly advises financial institutions, including banks and insurance companies, and other multinational companies in connection with their multiyear, multimillion-dollar IT and telecommunications services contracts, including outsourcing contracts.

Rick regularly lectures and writes on intellectual property and technology law topics relating to computer technology and technology outsourcing. Rick's presentations have included programs entitled "Technology Outsourcing in the Financial Services Industry: Contingency Planning a Contractual Approach to Managing Uncertainty" and "Negotiating Telecommunications Outsourcing Deals: Major Issues in Integrating Managed Services Agreements."

Rick is presently a director, secretary, and past chair, of the MIT Enterprise Forum of Connecticut, and is a director, secretary of the Connecticut Technology Council. Also, he is a past president of Congregation Kol Haverim in Glastonbury, CT.

Rick is a member of the Emerging Companies and Venture Finance group, which offers resources and a solution developed specifically for entrepreneurs and startups called Day Pitney Launch.