Intellectual Property

The attorneys in Budd Larner's Intellectual Property Group have broad experience and expertise in all key practice areas of intellectual property law relating to patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, false advertising, unfair competition and antitrust (patent misuse). The firm offers clients a full range of legal services in the intellectual property area including litigation; patentability, validity and infringement opinions; licenses and technology transfer agreements; intellectual property counseling; due diligence reviews and IP audits.

Our practice focuses on the pharmaceutical industry where we assist clients with product development, design around work, opinions, and when required, litigation. We recognize that the success of our clients' product portfolios turn on early market entry at a reasonable legal cost. For example, in the pharmaceutical area, we work with our clients' development teams to design non-infringing API processes and finished dosage formulations to avoid litigation and permit early market entry. Our success for these clients is marked by the absence of litigation with respect to the many products for which we have provided advice and assistance.

When litigation is required, however, our team members are among the most experienced available, having represented many brand name and generic companies both prosecuting and defending cases involving small molecule and biotech products. Recently, our pharmaceutical practice has focused on representing generic pharmaceutical companies in Hatch-Waxman cases. The Group is currently litigating almost a dozen such cases. The Group is also litigating cases involving the defense of claims that a client's API process infringes another generic company's patents and cases involving a claim of infringement with respect to medical devices.

Success in litigation is not, of course, an end in and of itself, but only a means to achieve a particular business goal, generally market entry for a product. We are therefore proactive in working with our clients to utilize such cases to obtain authorized generic deals, early market entry or other financially advantageous outcomes. We have recently been involved in several such deals, some arising out of litigation and some without any litigation.

In keeping with the mindset that success in litigation is only one part of the larger goal of launching a profitable product, our attorneys are intimately familiar with and keep abreast of the rapidly changing FDA regulations and case law concerning 180-day exclusivity and counsel our clients concerning the intricacies of obtaining, and avoiding the forfeiture of, exclusivity. We also litigate exclusivity disputes such as the Ondansetron case in which we secured exclusivity for our client.

Our representation in the pharmaceutical industry goes well beyond product development, litigation and settlements which sometimes flow from product development. We assist clients with the entire range of agreements concerning new chemical entities, finished dosage forms, bulk API, intermediates and medical devices, including license agreements, product development agreements and/or joint venture agreements and supply agreements. Our attorney's expertise is not limited to the pharmaceutical industry. The attorneys in Budd Larner's Intellectual Property Group have represented the intellectual property needs of corporations and individuals in the electrical, petroleum, medical device, software, e-commerce, financial services, chemical and mechanical fields.

Our Intellectual Property Group members, which include a full time staff of Ph.D., scientific and technical advisors, have specialized degrees in such fields as medicinal and organic chemistry, biochemistry, pharmacology, genetics, electrical, aerospace, mechanical, chemical and biomedical engineering, computer science and mathematics. Many Group members also have substantial experience in the pharmaceutical industry.

For more information, please contact:

Andrew J. Miller
amiller@budd-larner.com
973-315-4412

973-379-4800