Joseph C. Guagliardo

Joseph C. Guagliardo is a Partner in Dentons' Venture Technology Group, where he co-leads the technology transactions practice and is co-lead of the global blockchain, digital assets and cryptocurrency practice. He is also a member of the firm's artificial intelligence (AI) thought leadership group. His primary practice area is Technology Law.

He advises public and private companies on technology transactions and provides general counselling concerning technology and intellectual property development and commercialisation, financing, regulatory and other cross-disciplinary legal matters facing emerging technology businesses in the global economy.

Ranked by Chambers FinTech (2025), he has been praised by sources as "skilled," "detailed" and "attentive," with clients remarking he has "constantly gone over the top with his delivery" and "it is almost as if Joe is embedded within as our day-to-day general counsel." His clients span a wide range of industry sectors and emerging technology subject matter, including fintech, healthtech, adtech, blockchain, cryptocurrency and NFTs, big data and machine learning/AI, and e-commerce and fulfilment.

Prior to practising law, he spent more than a decade working for a venture-backed financial software company, where he held executive-level positions overseeing software design and implementation for financial institution clients around the world. As a technology industry veteran, he understands the business of technology and has a practical appreciation for the business and legal issues his clients face.

His technology transactions experience includes software development and licensing agreements, software as a service agreements, data licensing agreements, reseller and distribution agreements, joint venture agreements, asset sale agreements, university licensing and tech transfer policies, open source policies and licensing strategies, and technology and intellectual property due diligence in both the buy and sell side of M&A and venture capital transactions.

His representative matters include representing a financial technology provider in the negotiation of software as a service and managed service agreements with international banks; representing a tech-heavy consumer lending business in the negotiation of asset purchase agreements and joint venture agreements to expand its business operations in North America; and representing a large hospital institution in the commercialisation of technology and intellectual property resulting from its technology innovation centre.

In blockchain technology, he has represented a healthcare track-and-trace blockchain technology company in corporate formation, fund raising, intellectual property and commercial transaction matters, and a well-known decentralised blockchain network in the drafting of validator agreements for a proof-of-stake consensus platform. In cryptocurrency, NFTs and digital assets, he has represented a $50 million venture capital technology fund in the formation and launch of its security token on the Ethereum blockchain, a blockchain company in structuring a digital token/cryptocurrency to prepare for discussions with regulators concerning a no-action letter, a financial technology client in technology transactions and regulatory matters to structure and form a cryptocurrency trading platform, and an NFT platform in technology transactions, intellectual property counselling and general regulatory counsel.

In AI and machine learning, he has represented a venture capital-backed machine learning technology company in the drafting and negotiation of licence and software as a service agreements with large healthcare institutions, and in negotiating commercial agreements and transaction documents for a $100 million asset sale.

Other matters include representing a public pharmaceutical company in the clearance, prosecution and management of an international trademark portfolio consisting of over 200 trademarks; representing a life sciences company in the negotiation of an exclusive patent licence agreement relating to bioresorbable polymersomes; representing a professional hockey team to provide counsel concerning an individual postmortem right of publicity in connection with the naming rights for a new sports arena; and representing a multistate healthcare network of hospitals in establishing an office of technology transfer (OTT) and drafting all associated technology and intellectual property transfer policies and agreements.

He is a sought-after speaker and author on emerging technology-related topics and technology and intellectual property commercialisation and strategy. He has been recognised as a "Top Author" in the JD Supra Readers' Choice Awards for his thought leadership on blockchain technology. He regularly hosts technology meetups and podcasts, and is a Senior Advisor for the Cypher Accelerator, a blockchain accelerator programme run by the Stevens Center for Innovation in Finance at the University of Pennsylvania.

He holds a JD from Widener University School of Law (2001), an MBA in Finance from Temple University (1993) and a BA in Philosophy from Temple University (1991).