Morgan S. Heller II

Morgan Heller’s practice focuses on assisting clients with obtaining, clearing, asserting and defending their intellectual property (IP) rights in the U.S. and abroad. DRM’s clients benefit from Morgan’s powerful combination of legal and technical skills. In addition to being an experienced intellectual property lawyer, he is a Registered Professional Engineer with in-depth technical knowledge in many areas, including semiconductor device design and manufacturing, integrated circuit design and testing, structural engineering, robotic manipulator control and design, mechanical engineering, optics, materials science and software.

In assisting clients with obtaining IP rights, Morgan routinely performs patentability and trademark clearance studies and prepares and prosecutes patent and trademark applications in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. On the patent side of his practice, Morgan’s diverse background allows him to effectively work with a variety of technologies, including microelectronics, nanotechnology, mechanical devices, electro-mechanical devices, optics, optoelectronics, medical devices, business methods and healthcare and educational software. When clients desire foreign IP protection and circumstances permit, Morgan works closely with DRM’s network of foreign associates that enables clients to seek IP protection in virtually any country in the world.

In assisting clients with clearing, enforcing and defending their IP rights, Morgan performs patent clearance, (non)infringement and (in)validity studies as appropriate for each situation. He also prepares formal opinion letters based on these studies when advisable. If needed, Morgan prepares or responds to “cease and desist” letters, depending upon the client’s position in the dispute. Morgan also assists in settlement negotiations and, if litigation is unavoidable, he provides patent litigation support to DRM’s experienced IP trial lawyers, especially expert legal analyses of the patent-law issues at hand.

Morgan also provides general IP counseling and works with DRM’s other IP and non-IP lawyers to provide clients with a vast array of legal services backed by the field-specific expertise that the other DRM lawyers bring to the table.

Morgan has obtained numerous patents for large U.S. and international corporations and small companies, as well as for high- and low-tech startups. He has also been successful in defending clients against IP infringement claims and in asserting clients’ IP rights against suspected infringers.

Before attending law school, Morgan spent almost seven years working as a structural/project engineer with Raytheon Engineers & Constructors, designing various structures and preparing specifications for fossil fuel power generating plants located in the eastern United States. During his time as an engineer, Morgan co-authored one of Raytheon’s in-house design manuals for flue-gas desulfurization facilities, which became essential for many fossil fuel generating plants under the Clean Air Act of 1990.

Morgan periodically makes IP-centric presentations to inventor organizations and to honors classes in the Business School at the University of Vermont.