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.

Our attorneys handle:

Domestic and international patent application preparation, including provisional, utility, design, re-examination, and reissue applications
Domestic and international patent procurement services to create revenue and minimize competition
Patent portfolio development and management
Technology transfer, beneficial licensing, and cross licensing
Clinical trial, material transfer, joint development, and sponsored research agreements
Due diligence analysis, including evaluation of validity and enforceability of patents, strength of claims, and freedom to operate
Patent analysis services, including searching, patentability, validity, and infringement opinions; right-to-use studies; and inventorship analysis
Opposition and interference practices
Pre-litigation analysis and negotiation and litigation

Many of our attorneys hold doctoral or other advanced degrees and have industry experience. Their knowledge and real-world skill translate into a solid understanding of our clients' business and patent needs. Our patent counseling and procurement services are divided into the following teams:

Biotechnology
Chemical and Pharmaceutical
Electrical, Software, and Communications Technologies
Mechanical Technologies (including Medical Device and Ornamental Design)

Biotechnology

We represent companies throughout the world as they develop and market groundbreaking products and techniques in DNA and protein therapeutics, genetic engineering, cancer and HIV therapy, bioinstrumentation, stem cell therapy, crop science, and other technologies. We also represent venture capitalists and others who invest in this rapidly developing industry.

Chemical and Pharmaceutical

Our chemical patent team members prosecute patent applications covering organic, inorganic, polymers, plastics, surface chemistry, environmental, composites, process chemistry, nanotechnology, and chemical engineering technologies. Our pharmaceutical team members hold degrees in organic chemistry, biology, biochemistry, genetics, immunology, medicine, microbiology, and molecular biology. Our attorneys work with companies involved in diverse, chemistry-intensive technologies and industry sectors.

Electrical, Software, and Communications Technologies

Our electrical and communications technology professionals possess degrees in electrical and computer engineering, computer science, and other related fields. We combine patent law experience pertaining to software and business methods inventions with business acumen and solid technical backgrounds to provide our clients the advice they need to stay competitive.

Mechanical Technologies (including Medical Device and Ornamental Design)

The focus of the mechanical technologies and medical device patent practice is to help clients develop, prosecute, and enforce high-quality utility and design patent portfolios. We have a team of legal professionals with science, medical, and engineering degrees that draws on long-standing strengths in biotechnology, mechanical engineering, and the electrical arts.

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.