Michael Best has a group of intellectual property attorneys who focus on chemical patent prosecution. These attorneys serve the diverse needs of the chemical, pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device industries in intellectual property counseling and portfolio management, including all aspects of patent, trademark and copyright law. Their patent practices include acquiring and enforcing patent rights; procurement of foreign patent rights; counseling and negotiating licenses and technology transfers; and preparing patentability and non-infringement opinions, all to the end of ensuring that clients achieve their business goals and objectives with optimal protection of their technologies.
Our attorneys are highly credentialed in their field. Many hold advanced degrees, including some who have doctorates in chemistry, biochemistry, and molecular biology. Several attorneys have worked as in-house patent counsel prior to joining the firm and also have served as professors at major Midwestern universities.
With respect to polymer chemistry, our chemical patent attorneys have taken graduate level courses in polymer chemistry and also have significant experience counseling clients in this area. For example, our attorneys have worked in the areas of polyurethane chemistries, corporate resins, thermoplastics (ABS, polyacetals, polyacrylates, PTFE, polyamides, polycarbonates, polyolefins); hydrogels (polyethylene oxide, polypropylene oxide, acrylic polymers, polyvinyl pyrrolidones, PEGs, PAVs, PHEMA); natural polymers (celluloses, starches); inks utilizing polymer chemistries; polymer coatings for medical stents and catheters; and polymer coatings for commercial refrigeration units. Our chemical patent attorneys have experience in the textile industry, particularly with dyes and colorants used in this industry, and the use of caprolactam for textile applications. In addition, some of our attorneys have experience in the genetic modification of natural polymers via genetic manipulation.
Our attorneys have worked with technologies that include food sciences (e.g. snack foods, baked goods, and beverages); flavor systems (e.g. flavors such as acetaldehydes, diacetyls, vanillas, botanicals, etc. and related extracts and production processes); color and dye chemistries; surfactants and cleaning compositions; ink jet ink compositions; cement chemistries; polyurethane chemistries; epoxies; catalytic chemistries (e.g. producing biofuels, using fixed bed reactors, and employing novel catalysts such as those containing precious metals or organometallics); polymer technologies for a wide variety of end uses coating chemistries (e.g. employing isocyanates, polymers and cross-linking); nanotechnology; cosmetic chemistries (e.g. lipsticks, mascaras, blushes, and colorants for use in the same); pharmaceuticals (including novel compositions, methods of treatment, and methods for preparing pharmaceutical coatings and tablets); co-injection technologies (including injection molding, co-injection molding and co-extrusion); transgenic plants and animals; gene therapy; bioinformatics; cheminformatics; proteomics and amino acid chemistry; genomics; enzymology; glycobiology; immunology; biomolecular assays; biomolecular techniques; biomolecule purification; blood pressure monitors; orthopedic devices; monoclonal antibodies; protease inhibitors; vitamin D compounds and analogues; treatment of bone diseases; skin diseases and hyperproliferative diseases; targeted delivery of drugs; wound healants; magnetic resonance imaging; transdermal and iontophoretic delivery of drugs; and medical catheters. Such experience enables our chemical patent attorneys to combine a full range of legal services with a detailed understanding of the technical needs of chemical and pharmaceutical clients.