Practices

Patents

Our patent team offers industry-wide services in patent prosecution and patent portfolio development and management, as well as collaboration in transactions. Advanced scientific degrees, USPTO and industry experience, and superb legal skills fuel every strategy for commercializing and protecting our clients' ideas. 

Our PATENTSCAPE ® services start with a comprehensive analysis of clients' intellectual property and its place in the market. We then create a detailed roadmap for the development, improvement, and extraction of value from new or existing products. We conduct due diligence during mergers and acquisitions, provide patent procurement services, and handle all licensing and transactional matters. 

Experience 

  • Our attorneys perform patent counseling and portfolio maintenance for more than 30 major colleges, universities, and research institutions that are producing cutting-edge technologies and collectively represent over $9 billion of research funding.
  • We have served as patent procurement counsel to the University of Iowa Research Foundation, the technology transfer arm of the University of Iowa, for the last 12 years. We have handled more than 150 patent applications, both in the United States and abroad, for this major research university, as well as other patent-related counseling and opinions. The patent applications have related to inventions spanning a full range of scientific and technical disciplines, including biotechnology, electronics, software, medical imaging, mechanics, and others. We also serve as patent litigation counsel to the University of Iowa and the University of Iowa Research Foundation.
  • We represent Vanderbilt University in patent strategy and prepared the patent applications on technology related to optimizing a class of drugs to treat schizophrenia and other disorders. The technology has been licensed by drug maker Johnson & Johnson, and the licensing deal is expected to bring Vanderbilt $10 million within the next three years and potentially $100 million in the future.

USPTO Recognizes Ballard Spahr, 10 Patent Professionals for Pro Bono Service

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