PATENT PROSECUTION AND COUNSELING

We offer a full range of patent-related legal services to our clients, including strategic advice, patent opinions and infringement risk counseling, patent procurement, and portfolio management. Our patent group includes patent lawyers, patent agents, and technical advisors with advanced degrees in engineering, applied physics, chemistry, biochemistry, biophysics, and biology-related areas, as well as industry or Patent Office experience. These professionals have represented clients in the aerospace, communications, semiconductor, petroleum, chemical, medical device, agricultural, biotechnology, and pharmaceutical industries and have experience with technologies ranging from satellite systems, telecommunications networks, electronic components, and software applications to polymer science, electrochemistry, plant genomics, and agrichemicals.

Members of our patent group stay current through active involvement in legal and scientific associations, and frequently give seminars and speak at meetings throughout the world. Some members of our patent group are Adjunct Professors at Georgetown University Law Center, where they teach IP law courses. This additional experience is invaluable when challenging legal issues arise.

Our group is skilled in all phases of US and international patent prosecution, including appeals and interference proceedings before the US Patent and Trademark Office and the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, as well as European, Japanese, Indian, South American and other opposition practices. We provide strategic advice on IP issues that arise in patent enforcement, alleged patent infringement, patent misuse, multi-patent multiparty lawsuits, competition, and antitrust law, and the regulatory interface with the FDA and other agencies.

Because our practice interfaces with other areas of law, we train our lawyers to be cognizant of interface issues. To this end, our lawyers work closely with partners or counsel in other areas of law, including antitrust, FDA, corporate, licensing, and litigation, and receive training in these areas of law. Our emphasis on multidisciplinary training ensures an integrated, high-quality approach to addressing clients' needs.

We work closely with clients in business transactions, where our understanding of the technology and industry enhance our ability to assess IP issues in the context of financial and commercial transactions. In this regard, clients regularly retain us to perform due diligence evaluations associated with business transactions, often in combination with our corporate and commercial lawyers, who also have extensive industry experience.