Paul Morico > Baker Botts L.L.P. > Houston, United States > Lawyer Profile

Baker Botts L.L.P.
910 LOUISIANA STREET
HOUSTON
TEXAS 77002-4995
TEXAS
United States

Work Department

Intellectual Property

Position

Partner

Sector Chair – Energy IP (Firmwide)

Career

Paul Morico chairs the firm’s Energy IP Practice Group. Mr. Morico has broad experience in all areas of intellectual property litigation, including patent, trade secret, trademark and copyright litigation. He is a first-chair trial attorney, who has tried major, complex cases before judges and juries in the most active U.S. patent venues, before the International Trade Commission, and in Texas State Courts. Also, he has been lead counsel in numerous TRO proceedings, temporary injunction proceedings and Markman hearings and in actions before the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board.

Mr. Morico represents clients in a wide range of industries and technologies including, oil & gas, home appliances and HVAC systems, automotive, computer software, semiconductors, nanotechnology DNA sequencing, gene therapy-based cancer treatments and plant genetics.

Mr. Morico has approximately 30 years’ experience with energy and power-related technologies, including extensive experience with downhole drilling and seismic tools; fracturing equipment and techniques; subsea Christmas trees, wellheads, tubing hangers, connectors, risers and umbilicals; on and offshore platforms and pipelines; on and offshore LNG production facilities; heavy and light gas turbine engines; and alternative and renewable power sources. He has represented some of the largest companies in the industry, as well as private equity owned entities and early-stage startups. He serves as the General Counsel and as an advisor to Alchemy Sciences, Inc., an early-stage company focused on the development of specialized chemicals for enhancing the production of oil and gas in hard to extract subterranean formations.

Mr. Morico also has broad experience in patent portfolio development and management and in counseling clients in intellectual property-related transactions, including the acquisition and sale of IP-related assets, the licensing of those assets and the formation of joint ventures.

Mr. Morico has experience testifying on behalf of his clients in connection with his representation of them before the United States Patent and Trademark Office and in the rendering of legal opinions.

He is also involved in shaping patent policy and legislation in his role as an officer of the Intellectual Property Section of the American Bar Association and has advised the Biden transition team on IP-related issues.

Memberships

State Bar of Texas

United States Patent and Trademark Office

United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit

United States District Courts for the Southern District of Texas and the Eastern District of Michigan

ABA, Intellectual Property Section, Financial Chair 2022-2024, CLE Board Member 2010-present

The Honorable Nancy Atlas Intellectual Property Inn of Court, Secretary 2023-2024

State Bar of Texas, Intellectual Property Law Section, Chair 2013-2014

Houston Intellectual Property Law Association, President, 2007-2008

General Counsel, Houston Symphony, 2009-present

BioHouston, Advisory Board, 2006-2007

Institute for Energy Law, Advisory Board, 2018-present

Institute for Intellectual Property & Information Law, University of Houston Law Center, Advisory Board, 2008-present

Education

J.D., Columbia Law School 1990

B.S., Mechanical Engineering & Mathematics, Trinity College 1987

Lawyer Rankings

United States > Intellectual property > Trade secrets (litigation and non-contentious matters)

New York-based Robert Scheinfeld and Dallas-based Christa Brown-Sanford lead Baker Botts L.L.P.‘s trade secrets team alongside David Wille, also in Dallas, who is the firm-wide chair of the practice, which has a strong record in representing both plaintiffs and defendants in matters of significant value for such notable clients as MasterCard International Inc., for whom it secured an appellate victory in the New York state court. The team has expertise in high-profile matters of employee mobility, a key example being its victory for Dril-Quip Inc. in its allegations that a former employee misappropriated trade secrets regarding subsea tree systems, a suit with a value of $35m. IP partner Paul Morico, based in Houston, acts on many of the team’s most notable cases, while Washington DC’s Katharine Burke has a strong intellectual property specialism.