Concentration

Intellectual property litigation and counseling involving patents, copyrights, trademarks and trade secrets

Summary

Robert Riddle’s practice ranges across intellectual property law, focusing primarily on matters relevant to the pharmaceutical, chemical and life science industries. His practice is devoted to helping clients fully leverage their intellectual property assets.

Dr. Riddle represents both plaintiffs and defendants in patent litigation, with substantial experience in federal court. He also counsels clients regarding strategic patent portfolio development and management including evaluating patents, rendering patent-related technical opinions (e.g., freedom-to-operate and design-around) and preparing and prosecuting patent applications.

Dr. Riddle’s technical experience and professional interests encompass the fields of chemistry and the life sciences, with emphasis on nanotechnology, drug delivery, pharmaceuticals, bioengineering and medical devices. In these fields, he serves clients ranging from nonprofit research institutions and start-up biotechnology companies to established pharmaceutical corporations.

Representative Engagements

• Preparation of patents and patent-related opinions for a number of clients including public, private, and academic entities
• False Patent Marking—defending various clients in federal court against allegations of false patent marking.
• Elan Pharma International Ltd. v. Abraxis Bioscience, Inc.(D. Del. 2008). Prosecuted first patent infringement case involving nanotechnology/nanomedicine; favorable outcome for client with a finding of infringement and multimillion-dollar award
• Scientific Drilling Inter’l, Inc. v. Gyrodata, Inc. (TTAB). Prosecuted trademark opposition before Trademark Trial and Appeal Board of the U.S. Patent Office; favorable outcome for client with a refusal to register defendant’s trademarks
• Crane Co. v. SandenVendo America et al. (E.D. Tex.). Defending SandenVendo in a case involving refrigerated vending machines
• Kinetic Concepts, Inc. (KCI) et al. v. BlueSky Medical Corp., Medela AG, et al. (W.D. Tex. 2006).  Defended patent infringement, breach of contract and miscellaneous state tort claims case concerning medical device; obtained a defense verdict on all claims against our client

Publications, Speeches and Presentations

Publications

• “Privilege and Patents in a Consolidating Industry,” Defense Counsel Journal, Oct. 2010 (Thomas Rooney and Kevin Jacobs, co-authors)
• “How to Defend Against False Marking Suits” Law360, May 2010 (William Rothwell and Derek Casper, co-authors)
• “Defending False Marking Suits,” Baker Botts IP Report, April 2010 (William Rothwell and Derek Casper, co-authors)
• “Supreme Court to Review Validity of Test-Plus-Correlate Claims: LabCorp v. Metabolite,” Intellectual Property & Technology Law Journal, April 2006
• “Designing Around a United States Patent,” South Texas Law Review, Summer 2004 (Paul N. Katz, co-author)
• Papers relating to scientific topics in Protein Expression and Purification, Remote Gas Strategies, Journal of Industrial Microbiology & Biotechnology, Biotechnology Letters and Trends in Biotechnology

Speeches and Presentations

• “The Fate of Embryonic Stem Cell Research: Examining the Legal Battle Behind the Science,” Rice University James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy, October 2010.
• “Recent Challenges for Life Science Inventions,” The University of Kansas, September 2010.
• “Developing an IP Strategy for BioPharma and Life Sciences,” Rice University Business School, April 2008
• “IP and Clinical Research,” The University of Texas, Medical Branch, Houston, December 2007
• “Pharmaceutical Patents and Access to Generic Drugs,” Baylor College of Medicine, May 2006