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Biotechnology

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Industries Served Biotechnology Chemical Consumer Products & Services Electronics, Computers & Software Financial Services Internet & e-Commerce Materials Science Mechanical Engineering Medical Devices Nanotechnology Pharmaceutical Semiconductor Processing & Devices Telecommunications Transportation

The biotechnology practice of the Intellectual Property Group is among the most accomplished in the world. Our attorneys, patent agents and technical advisors have substantial experience in issues unique to the biotechnology industry, having obtained and protected numerous patents on biotech and pharmaceutical products in the United States and around the globe.

Our attorneys rank among the best-known practitioners in the field, with vast experience in diverse areas such as genetics and genomics, bioinformatics, DNA, antigens, antisense technology, monoclonal antibody applications, transgenic plants and animals, diagnostic assays and drug delivery systems. More than 40 of our attorneys, patent agents and technical advisors hold Ph.D.s in areas that include Biochemistry, Biomedical Sciences, Cellular Biology, Chemistry, Molecular Biology, Genetics, Experimental Medicine, Immunology and Pharmacology.

Our biotechnology clients include Pfizer, AstraZeneca, TKT, Biogen, Aventis, Genzyme and many others among the world's leading biotechnology innovators. Our work with Biogen on the prosecution of the Hepatitis B vaccine patent was cited by IP Worldwide as one of "10 Patents that Changed The World."

Representative Experience

• In 2004, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed a Final Decision of the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences finding no interference-in-fact between the claims of our Lederman et al.' s United States patent 5,474,771 and the claims of a United States patent application of Noelle.
• In November 2002, our work for Bio-Rad and Cornell Research Foundation resulted in victory in an appeal in the European Patent Office (EPO). Cornell and Bio-Rad's two-photon laser microscopy patent had been revoked after oral opposition proceedings in the EPO. After a full hearing in Munich, the three member Board of Patent Appeals vacated the lower decision and reinstated the patent as it was originally issued.
• In Velander v. Garner, (2003), the court affirmed the decision of the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences that certain claims to an invention of a transgenic mammal capable of expressing fibrinogen in its milk were unpatentably obvious.

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