William Wilson

William Wilson is a partner in the firm’s Technology group and Intellectual Property practice. His practice focuses on advising startups, large corporate enterprises, and venture capital and private equity investors on business and technology transactions, including counseling, structuring and negotiating deals across industries with a particular focus on the fintech, software, and high technology sectors.

William has experience providing Technology and Intellectual Property counseling and advising clients in all aspects of strategic licensing and technology transactions, joint ventures and other strategic alliances, and intellectual property strategy and protection. He also has significant experience advising clients on intellectual property and commercial matters across a variety of strategic mergers, acquisitions, and corporate divestitures.

William’s representative experience includes:

Technology and Intellectual Property

• Represented video processing software company overseeing a broad range of technology and intellectual property transactions, including negotiating and drafting outbound technology, API and SDK, and content licensing agreements*
• Represented leading automotive manufacturer in the procurement and integration of voice recognition and mapping systems for its vehicles*
• Provided counsel on technology transfer matters, including to a nanotechnology startup in acquiring patents from a research university*
• Structured and drafted electronic health records (EHR) sublicense for university research hospital*
• Represented clients on open source issues, software audits, and clean room software development procedures*
• Counsel to apparel retailer in connection with the implementation of and migration to a cloud-based e-commerce platform*

Fintech and Payments

• Represented numerous banks in connection with the negotiation of core processing agreements*
• Represented a major financial institution in the outsourcing of the technology platform and related services to support its online personal savings and business checking products*
• Represented a European-based digital-only banking platform unicorn on its US expansion, including counseling, structuring and negotiating deals for it currency conversion, cryptocurrency, and US banking relationships*
• Negotiated various payment related agreements, including merchant, payment facilitator, and ISO agreements*
• Advised clients on payment and banking regulatory issues associated with fintech transactions, including compliance with brand operating rules, money transmission, NACHA rules, PCI-DSS, GLBA, and FTC and CFPB rules*

*Denotes experience prior to joining Goodwin

Prior to joining Goodwin, William practiced in Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe’s IP Licensing & Technology Transactions group, where he focused on technology transactions and data privacy. He previously completed a secondment at AWS Elemental, overseeing a broad range of technology and intellectual property transactions.

Before law school, he worked at Creative Artists Agency (CAA).

William has been named a Recommended Lawyer for Patent Licensing by The Legal 500 United States. The Legal 500 stated that Mr. Wilson has a “deep knowledge of the issues, both legal and technical and is able to clearly advise and support both the legal and business teams.” The guide also praised him for a “relaxed and collaborative negotiation style that promotes resolution of issues, which is a very helpful skill when dealing with a difficult counterparty.”

WIlliam’s recent publications include:

• Author, “10 IP and Commercial Contract Loose Ends to Tie Up Before You Approach Investors,” TechCrunch, April 2022 
• Author, “The CFPB Amendment to the Annual Privacy Notice Requirement under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act,” Payments & FinTech Lawyer, October 2018
• Co-Author, “Cloud Computing Agreements: Negotiating Privacy Issues with Large Cloud Vendors,” Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) Docket, June 24, 2016
• Author, “The Federal Circuit Strips the iPhone of its Trade Dress Victory,” INTA Bulletin, Vol 70, No 12, July 1, 2015
• Author, “Supplemental Expert Report Not Admissible,” INTA Bulletin, Vol 69, No 19, October 15, 2015
• Author, “The TTAB Did Not Love New York,” INTA Bulletin, Vol 69, No 10, June 1, 2014
• Author, “Ninth Circuit Refuses to Enforce Browsewrap Terms,” Hunton & Williams LLP Client Alert, September 2014
• Author, “TTAB Finds Holistic Merely Descriptive of Cat Food,” INTA Bulletin, Vol 69, No 4, February 17, 2014
• Co-Author, “Sixth Circuit Upholds Dismissal of All Claims Related to ‘Soul Men’ Film and Soundtrack,” MLRC MediaLawLetter, November 29, 2013

William’s recent speaking engagements include:

• Presenter, “Practical Contract Drafting”, Continuing  Legal Education, August 17, 2022
• Presenter, “Navigating IP Strategy,” Spark Cleantech Accelerator, The University of Tennessee Research Park at Cherokee Farm, Knoxville, TN, July 9, 2022
• Co-Presenter, “Software and Data Use Agreements,” Business Attorney’s Guide to Information Technology, National Business Institute, Portland, Oregon, October 24, 2017