Peter Watt Morse

Peter M. Watt-Morse, one of the founding partners of the firm’s Pittsburgh office, has worked on all forms of commercial and technology transactions for more than 30 years. Peter works on business and intellectual property (IP) matters for a broad range of clients, including software, hardware, networking, and other technology clients, pharmaceutical companies, healthcare providers and payers, and other clients in the life science industry. He also represents banks, investment advisers, and other financial services institutions.

Peter advises companies on business process (BP) and information technology (IT) outsourcing transactions. He also handles technology acquisition, development, licensing, and distribution agreements; strategic alliances and joint ventures; IP creation and strategy; university and governmental technology transfer issues; and general corporate and commercial matters. He developed innovative outsourcing arrangements for clinical trial services for major pharmaceutical companies and essential back-office operations of banks and investment advisors. The equity/license structure Peter developed helped launch the commercialization of revolutionary semiconductor technology for the networking industry.

Peter has created long-term supply arrangements for essential commodities and components on behalf of consumer products and manufacturing clients. He has also developed complex intellectual property agreements to carve up technologies in divestiture transactions and cutting-edge agreements and procedures regarding e-commerce. He also serves as an adjunct professor at the University of Pittsburgh Law School, teaching classes related to technology transactions and IP. He frequently speaks and writes about outsourcing, IP, and technology-related topics, including an annual seminar he moderates on Internet Law. He also has an extensive background in technology use in law practice and is past chairman of Morgan Lewis’s Technology Steering Committee.