IP Lawyers Join Troutman Sanders in New York

NEW YORK – June 11, 2012 – A high-profile team of four Intellectual Property attorneys has joined the law firm of Troutman Sanders LLP, providing the latest boost to the firm’s IP practice and its New York presence.
 
Joining Troutman Sanders from the New York office of McDermott Will & Emery LLP are partners Joseph R. Robinson and Robert Schaffer, of counsel Heather Morehouse Ettinger, Ph.D., and associate Phoenix Pak. All are registered U.S. patent attorneys.
 
“This group greatly enhances our Intellectual Property experience in New York and joins an already strong IP team here,” said Aurora Cassirer, managing partner of the New York office. “This also is the latest sign of Troutman Sanders’ desire to expand in the nation’s leading legal market.”
 
Troutman Sanders’ Intellectual Property practice, which is international in scope, regularly advises and represents clients in regard to patents, trademarks, copyrights and trade secrets. It also handles matters regarding franchise law, technology licensing and transactions, restrictive covenants and Information Management, including privacy & data security, outsourcing, e-commerce, the Internet and social media.
 
Joe Robinson, with more than 20 years of experience in all aspects of intellectual property law, focuses his practice in the pharmaceutical, life sciences, biotechnology, and medical device fields. His practice encompasses litigation, including Hatch-Waxman litigation; licensing; post-grant proceedings; counseling; due diligence; and patent and trademark prosecution.  
 
He has served as litigation counsel in a variety of patent and trademark disputes in many different jurisdictions, and has also served as appellate counsel before the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. He has counseled on or litigated Hatch-Waxman issues involving numerous drug products. His litigation experience also includes other pharmaceutical, biologicals, industrial enzyme, biofuel production, molecular biology, recombinant technology, protein expression, immunology, drug formulation, drug delivery systems, microelectrodes, business methods, electronics, licensing, complicated mechanical device, charitable organization trademark and unfair competition, trade dress, product liability, and diversion of goods cases.  
 
Robinson also has experience with chemical, mechanical and biological purifications, cloning, transgenic animals, artificial organs, RNAi, stem cells, agricultural biology, screening technologies, industrial chemistry, organic chemistry, inorganic chemistry, synthetic chemistry, biochemistry, enzymatic and mechanical fabric treatments, cell phones, leds, RFID, materials, software, and business method technologies.  
 
He also has extensive experience representing foreign clients from around the world, including Brazil, Denmark, Germany, Japan, Korea, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. He lectures internationally on issues of U.S. patent laws and trends.

Bob Schaffer applies his expertise to IP litigation, counseling and management, including patent procurement, strategic planning and transactional advice, for biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, computer software companies and new media firms. He regularly handles domestic and international patent and trademark portfolios and due diligence studies for clients, including major U.S. corporations, start-ups and high-technology ventures. His cases include ANDA matters, complex U.S. Patent and Trademark Office interferences, reexaminations and reissues, strategies for post-grant proceedings. 

Schaffer’s work in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical fields includes directed evolution of genes and proteins; combinatorial chemistry and rational drug design; nano-technology and microfabricated microfluidic devices; genomics and proteomics inventions; cancer treatments; antibiotics; vaccines and therapies for HIV, malaria, diabetes and other diseases; drugs and treatments for autoimmune, cardiac and neurological disorders; diagnostic and genetically engineered antigens and antibodies; pharmaceutical formulations and drug delivery systems; bioequivalence and biosimilarity of drug therapies; therapeutic and industrial enzymes; personalized medicine; bioinformatics; and drug discovery technologies.

His work for software clients includes counseling for new business methods, digital rights management, streaming and data compression technologies, content delivery, distributed networking, caching and memory management software, security and encryption technologies, network security and diagnostics, software certificates and digital watermarking, anti-virus software, document management software and graphical user interfaces.

Heather Ettinger focuses her practice on patent counseling, procurement and litigation in the biotechnical, pharmaceutical and chemical fields. She regularly handles domestic and international patent portfolios and due diligence studies for clients, including major corporations, tech ventures and research institutes. 

Ettinger has extensive experience counseling on patent matters in areas such as recombinant molecular biology, pharmaceuticals, enzyme technology and small molecule chemistry. She has procured patents covering inventions in a wide range of fields in the chemical and life sciences.

She also has experience negotiating and drafting license agreements and mergers and acquisitions in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical fields. Ettinger also regularly counsels in Hatch-Waxman issues and works on post-grant proceedings and complex patent litigation.

Ettinger earned her J.D., cum laude, from Fordham University School of Law and her Ph.D. in biological and biomedical sciences from Harvard University. She received her B.S., summa cum laude, in biology from Tufts University.

Phoenix Pak’s practice focuses primarily on intellectual property litigation. He is a Registered Patent Attorney and counsels clients on identifying, protecting, defending, and enforcing their intellectual property. His litigation experience includes drafting pleadings and motions, serving and answering discovery, preparing infringement and invalidity contentions, assisting with the preparation for and conducting Markman hearings, planning for and conducting reviews of discovery documents, and assisting with depositions preparations and appellate briefing. His prosecution experience includes prosecution tasks related to patent applications in the U.S. and internationally.
Pak received his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and has experience with a wide range of technologies, including: Parkinson’s and ADHD pharmaceutical treatments, and business communications.

About Troutman Sanders:

Troutman Sanders LLP is an international law firm with more than 600 lawyers and offices located throughout the United States and China. Founded in 1897, the firm’s lawyers provide counsel and advice in practically every aspect of civil and commercial law related to the firm’s core practice areas: Business Law, Energy and Industry Regulation, Finance, Litigation and Real Estate. Firm clients range from multinational corporations to individual entrepreneurs, federal and state agencies to foreign governments, and non-profit organizations to businesses representing virtually every sector and industry. See troutmansanders.com for more information.