Heather J. Meeker

O’Melveny & Myers LLP partner Heather Meeker developed her specialty in open-source software licensing when clients began using the freely available source code without the benefit of legal precedent. Potential liability issues made most lawyers advise against its use.

“I decided ‘no’ wasn’t the right answer. It needed to be more nuanced. ‘Yes, if,’” Meeker explained.

She developed an expertise in licensing models, including open-source licensing, patent pools and standards licensing. She’s literally written the book on it, as she authored, “Open (Source) for Business: A Practical Guide to Open Source Software Licensing,” and the textbook “Technology Licensing: A Primer,” which she used in her lecturing and teaching days at University of California, Berkeley School of Law and at Hastings College of the Law.

“I couldn’t find a textbook I liked, so I wrote one,” she said.

Bruce Perens, regarded as a founder of the free software movement, retained Meeker to represent him in a defamation lawsuit brought by Open Source Security Inc., the maker of grsecurity Linux kernel patches. Open Source Security Inc. v. Perens, 3:17-cv-04002 (N. D. Cal., filed July 17, 2017).

The suit sought $3 million in compensation for harm allegedly done by Perens in online posts that criticized Open Source Security’s distribution policies. Meeker argued that Perens’ online comments are First Amendment speech protected by the California anti-SLAPP law. The court agreed in a June 2018 ruling and directed Open Source Security to pay almost $260,000 in legal fees and costs.

Meeker is also working to help startups navigate open-source licensing issues. She’s a founding portfolio partner at the new venture fund OSS Capital, which started in October 2018. She’s advising fledgling software companies on how best to formulate a business model around free code.

“At this point, there’s no playbook. Every day I sit down at my desk, my practice gets further away from a traditional law practice,” Meeker said. “There are so many directions to go. You have to go down your own path and hope others come down it with you.”

— Jennifer McEntee