Chemical patent practice presents unique challenges. The firm’s Chemical Practice Group counsels and represents clients in all aspects of intellectual property law. The Group has a 30-year history of counseling, patent application drafting and prosecution, as well as federal district court litigation. The Group includes highly experienced and specialized patent attorneys assisted by patent agents, technical advisors, paralegals, and legal assistants. Selected attorneys and staff are fluent (reading and/or writing) in numerous languages, including German, French, Japanese, Russian, and Chinese.
At Greenblum and Bernstein, we have assembled a very substantial team of trained, highly expert professionals who are dedicated specifically to representing clients in the chemical industries. The team includes:
- Attorneys with degrees in chemical engineering, chemistry, organic chemistry, or biochemistry, all of whom are licensed to prosecute patent applications before the USPTO, and with a number holding advanced and Ph.D. degrees.
- Patent agents with doctorates awarded in the chemical or related fields.
- Attorneys with extensive years of experience as patent examiners, and various specialized positions in the USPTO.
- Attorneys with chemical backgrounds experienced in drafting, reviewing, and negotiating license agreements, joint development agreements, and other technology transfer agreements, trained to recognize issues particular to the chemical industries.
- Highly experienced attorneys specializing in the art of federal district court patent litigation, most of whom are attorneys registered to practice before the USPTO and many of whom were law clerks to federal district court judges (see also Litigation).
- Highly experienced attorneys specializing in complex interferences (see also Interferences).
The Group has extensive experience in preparing and prosecuting patent applications (including ex parte appeals to the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences) in the major chemical and chemical engineering technologies, including the following representative areas:
- Organic Chemistry
- Inorganic Chemistry
- Fine Chemicals
- Polymer Chemistry
- Analysis, Measuring, and Testing
- Chemical Engineering, Process Chemistry, and Specialized Chemical Industries
- Stock Materials and Materials Engineering
- Metallurgy
- Nanotechnology
- Medicinal Chemistry
- Biochemistry
In addition to patent procurement, the Group works closely with its clients to provide the full spectrum of client counseling and representation needed by companies, large and small, to successfully navigate today’s increasingly competitive and increasingly global economy, including joint venture strategies, as well as the traditional areas of patent evaluation, opinions (including opinions regarding issues of patent infringement, scope, validity and enforceability), and licensing. The Group has a close working relationship with technical, patent, and legal associates in almost every country around the globe and is thus capable of providing seamless patent protection and counseling, worldwide.
We are proactive in our approach to the chemical industry and provide innovative strategies to enhance protection of our client’s intellectual property while assisting in the avoidance of litigation.
The Group has a highly successful track record of enforcing and defending its client’s intellectual property rights in all areas of inter partes proceedings, including litigation in Federal District Courts.
Members of the Group have lectured extensively (including in-house lectures for corporate clientele) on U.S. patent practice, including patent procurement and the duty of candor before the USPTO.