Ira Heffan is an attorney in the Intellectual Property Transactions and Strategies Practice of Goodwin Procter. He is resident in the firm's Boston office. Ira regularly counsels clients on intellectual property licensing matters, including negotiation of software license agreements and appropriate use of software distributed under “free” and “open source” licenses. He also concentrates his practice on strategic intellectual property counseling, patent and trademark portfolio development, and disputes relating to computer hardware and software technology.

Ira has authored and co-authored various articles on open source software and intellectual property law. He wrote one of the first papers discussing the enforceability of the GNU General Public License, which appeared as a note in the Stanford Law Review in 1997, entitled "Copyleft: Licensing Collaborative Works in the Digital Age." Additional authorships on the subject include “Will Open Source Close Your Exit?” in Venture Update; “‘Open Source’ Software: Weighing the Benefits and Risks” in IP Observer; and “Consider the Risks of Using Open Source Software in Commercial Products” in Mass High Tech.

Ira received his J.D. from Stanford Law School, a M.S. in Computer Science from Boston University, and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Union College.

• How to Safely Participate in an Open Source Project