IP Strategy Summit: Biotech & Pharma – Boston

Ron Cahill is well-respected for his work with clients of virtually all sizes to solve their most challenging intellectual property problems. A first chair IP trial attorney and Chair of the Barnes & Thornburg national Life Sciences Practice Group, he specializes in breaking down complex life sciences intellectual property issues for juries, judges, and the PTAB. With decades of courtroom experience, Ron has led trial teams in patent infringement cases around the country. He also conducts inter partes reviews (IPRs) and other proceedings in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to determine patent validity. While much of Ron’s work involves presenting his clients’ cases to judges and juries around the country, many clients ask him to apply his experience to strategic planning within their business, especially with respect to their competitors or potential deal partners. Ron’s life science work covers a wide range of products, technologies, and legal issues, with recent engagements including CAR-T cancer treatments, small molecule enzyme inhibitors, personalized medicine, and genetic engineering of metabolic systems to produce desired outputs. Recent legal issues have included the scope of written description and enablement in the drug discovery context, the obviousness of engineered biologics, infringement based on biochemical function and property limitations, induced infringement of method of treatment claims, and the strategic use of IPRs to avoid litigation.

As a Director, Intellectual Property at Encodia, Inc., Dmitry oversees the growing patent and trademark portfolio and aligns it with company’s business goals. Encodia is building a novel platform for enabling high-throughput protein analysis and polypeptide de novo sequencing. Working as a US patent agent for about 10 years, Dmitry has significant experience with drafting, prosecuting and analyzing patents and patent applications both in the US and internationally. Dmitry has worked both as in-house patent agent and as a patent agent within a large law firm.
Dmitry also has very extensive research experience in the life sciences and healthcare fields, and is an author of more than 30 peer-reviewed publications in international journals, including about 15 first-author publications. Dmitry was a regulatory scientist at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, Office of Biotechnology Products), evaluating potential problems that therapeutic proteins may face during manufacturing and storage. Before that, Dmitry was a postdoctoral scientist at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, studying protein folding and its relevance to human diseases.
Dmitry holds a Ph.D. degree in Molecular Biophysics from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT), Russia, and received a B.S., Applied Mathematics and Physics, from MIPT, with honors.

Ms. Ksenia Takhistova is an experienced IP litigator and technology attorney who counsels clients on US intellectual property law issues across a wide variety of modern and emerging technologies. She has substantial experience in all aspects of litigation, representing both plaintiffs and defendants in patent cases, including Hatch-Waxman litigations, before the Federal District Courts, at the International Trade Commission, in post-grant proceedings at the US Patent and Trademark Office, and in appeals from these proceedings.

She has also handled other IP-related disputes, including trade secret, false advertising, and antitrust issues, in both Federal and State Courts. Ksenia represents clients in transactions, such as settlement negotiations and IP licensing discussions, and performs due diligence and opinion work, including freedom-to-operate, patentability, infringement and validity analyses. Drawing on her extensive educational and research background in the mechanical and chemical engineering arts, she is able to effectively handle disputes in technical fields, such as mechanical and medical devices, electrical and computer technology, life sciences, chemical, materials, and consumer products.

Bryan Zerhusen, Ph.D., counsels innovators in the chemical and life science industries in all aspects of domestic and foreign patent preparation and prosecution. Chair of the firm’s Life Sciences Practice Group, Bryan’s clients include solo inventors, academic institutions, foreign law firms, venture firms, as well as companies ranging from start-ups to global corporations in the medical biotechnology, agricultural biotechnology, diagnostic, chemical, pharmaceutical, medical device and healthcare sectors.
In particular, Bryan routinely performs patent drafting and prosecution; counsels clients on strategic IP portfolio management; prepares patentability and freedom-to-operate searching, analysis and opinions; prosecutes patent reexaminations; conducts due diligence investigations; and provides IP litigation support. Bryan also has extensive experience negotiating and preparing agreements relevant to the life science industry, including collaborative agreements and IP licensing agreements on behalf of solo inventors, venture firms, start-ups and emerging companies.

William Coppola has been an accomplished patent attorney amassing a tremendous amount of experience in the legal biotech and pharma space. He has secured and defended world-wide patent protection for chemical, biotechnology and device inventions, litigation of chemical, biotechnology and device patents in the US and globally (including Hatch-Waxman litigations in the US, and PMNOC litigations in Canada).

Mr. Coppola holds a J.D. from Seton Hall University School of Law. He received a graduate degree in Biochemistry from the University of South Florida, and an undergraduate degree in Chemistry from the University of Delaware. He is a registered patent attorney who is admitted to practice law in New Jersey, New York, Florida, and the District of Columbia. He is also a member of the Phi Kappa Phi Honor society and an Eagle Scout.

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Troy Groetken is a Shareholder/Board Member with McAndrews. He has 28 years of legal experience and more than 30 years of technical experience in the pharmaceutical, biotechnological, and chemical fields.

Mr. Groetken advises corporate clients regarding strategic acquisition, divestiture and licensing of core and non-core intellectual property assets on a global platform.  In addition, he is also recognized by the intellectual property community as a thought leader with respect to portfolio due diligence analyses and global portfolio coordination.

Troy counsels domestic and foreign clients on a broad range of technical disciplines that include, for example, new drug entities (small-molecule, protein, recombinant, combinatorial technologies, assay, etc.), diagnostics, biological molecular technologies, and API development. He also counsels clients regarding biosimilars, cancer therapeutics, mRNA Technologies, and antibody technologies.

Michael Connelly, President of WIT Legal, LLC, brings over 25 years of intellectual property litigation experience to complex technical disputes. As a Partner at McDermott Will & Emery, he focused on high-stakes patent and trade secret litigation before the International Trade Commission (ITC) and federal courts. His career spans both law firm practice and executive leadership, including serving as CEO of The Medici Portfolio, where he managed patent acquisition and monetization strategies.

He now leads WIT Legal, bringing his extensive IP litigation background to the expert witness space. WIT specializes in identifying and engaging premier subject matter experts from academia, industry, and government to tackle complex technical disputes. This strategic approach to expert witness engagement, built on deep litigation experience, has established WIT as a trusted partner for companies navigating high-stakes intellectual property matters across federal courts and the ITC.

Allen Baum, a partner in Barnes and Thornburg’s Raleigh office, represents life sciences companies in patent and licensing matters. Allen assists clients in identifying and executing strategies to protect key commercial products, licensing important intellectual assets, and bringing lucrative products to market in areas heavily patented by competitors. With an extensive litigation background, he is also frequently retained to evaluate the strength of patents under consideration for licensing, acquisition or investment. His representative clients are active in small molecule pharmaceuticals, agricultural products, biotechnology, biochemistry, vaccines, medical devices, ocular medications and implants, green technologies, and advanced materials. Allen’s work includes post grant litigation and inter partes review before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, freedom-to-operate studies, due diligence review, infringement and validity studies, licensing, Hatch-Waxman litigation, reexamination, and patent preparation and prosecution. Active in leadership roles in the IP industry, Allen is a former president of the Licensing Executives Society for the USA and Canada, and a former president of the Board of Governor’s for Certified Licensing Professionals (CLP). He is also a frequent instructor for intellectual asset management courses and a frequent speaker on life sciences IP topics.

Dennis J. Parad is a Registered Patent Attorney with nearly two decades of experience advising on patent portfolio development & strategy in the biotech, chemical, healthcare, and pharmaceutical sectors. Before practicing as a Registered Patent Attorney, Dennis served ten years at the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office as a Primary Patent Examiner in the biotechnology and chemical art areas (TC 1600).

Dennis advises clients with respect to preparation and prosecution of both U.S. and foreign/PCT patent applications, conducting IP portfolio evaluations, drafting validity and freedom-to-operate opinions, and intellectual property commercialization. Dennis also represents clients in corporate transactions, including IP due diligence and reviewing and drafting legal agreements. A number of Dennis’ clients also engage him to represent their company as their outside general counsel and trusted advisor.

Dennis’ intellectual property law experience covers a wide range of chemical and biotechnology technologies, including pharmaceutical compounds/formulations, medical devices/implants, antibodies, gene therapy, treatments in the fields of oncology, neurology, osteology, and dermatology, metallic medicine, cosmetics, detergents, textiles, polymers, nanostructures/nanomaterials, surgical methods, surfactants, lipids/liposomes/vesicles, dental compositions/devices, electrochemical devices, materials science, diagnostics, pesticides, immunology, optics, and tissue/biomedical engineering.