Rory P. Pheiffer is an associate in the Intellectual Property Department. His practice covers a broad spectrum of intellectual property issues, including domestic and international patent prosecution, patent litigation, patent opinion and clearance matters, domestic and international trademark prosecution and enforcement, and technology licensing matters.
Rory prosecutes patents and assists clients with opinion and clearance matters in a variety of technical areas including medical instruments and devices, biotechnology, microfluidic applications, electronics and lighting, printing devices, image scanning and detection devices, digital cameras, and various other devices in the electrical and mechanical arts. Medical technologies that Rory prosecutes include: devices and methods for tissue and ligament attachment, tissue engineering, blood sampling devices, electrochemical meters and cells, respiratory apparatuses, surgical instruments, endoscopic devices, surgical seal elements, gastric bands and bypass procedures, cell sorting apparatuses, stents, scaffolds, drug delivery devices and methods, and nucleic acid analysis devices.
Rory has extensive experience negotiating and drafting intellectual property licenses, due in part to his experience as a licensing attorney in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Technology Licensing Office. Rory’s experience with licensing includes the licensing of patents, copyrights (software and non-software-based), trademarks, trade secrets, and technical know-how, and involves the determination of the effects of federal and private provisions tied to funds used to develop licensed intellectual property.
Rory co-authored and served as counsel in an amicus brief filed on behalf of the Boston Patent Law Association (BPLA) in an appeal heard by the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals en banc related to issues of inequitable conduct. He also assists in pro bono matters including, acquiring trademarks for local charitable organizations and representing tenants in landlord-tenant disputes in the Boston Housing Court.
Rory is on the Programs Committees of both the Merrimack Valley Venture Forum (MVVF) and the Boston chapter of the Licensing Executive Society. He is an active member of the BPLA, the Boston IP Inn of Court the American Intellectual Property Law Association, the Association of University Technology Managers, and the MIT Enterprise Forum, as well as the American and Boston Bar Associations.. Rory previously served as co-chair of the BPLA’s New Lawyers and Law Students Committee.
Rory became the first-ever recipient of Suffolk's Sokoloff Intellectual Property Award.