For further details, please visit: https://knowledgewebcasts.com/know-portfolio/emerging-issues-in-patent-and-trade-secret-law-cle/

About Aaron L.J. Pereira


Aaron Pereira is a litigator and patent attorney, with a background in chemical & biomolecular engineering.


Aaron has several years of experience litigating and counseling in the life sciences space, with a special focus on Hatch-Waxman and BPCIA matters. He has managed large parallel litigation in federal district court and at the Patent Office, and has developed a deep understanding of the procedural and substantive interplay between such proceedings. He has been counsel to some of the world’s largest and most sophisticated companies, and regularly advises clients on matters of global patent strategy, market entry, and product competition. As a registered patent attorney, Aaron has prosecuted patents and rendered opinions in the life sciences space. He also has experience running large patent diligence reviews in support of acquisitions and financing.

Aaron is active in professional and affinity groups, and currently chairs the Patents Committee at the NYC Bar Association.

About Panitch Schwarze Belisario & Nadel LLP


Panitch Schwarze Belisario & Nadel LLP is a boutique IP firm with a nationally ranked team of attorneys, focusing on all areas of patent, trademark, copyright, and trade secret law, across a broad range of technologies. Panitch attorneys regularly represent clients in both ex parte and adversarial proceedings in federal courts and before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The firm’s boutique structure allows Panitch to offer a tailored experience to a broad range of clients, ranging from transnational companies to individual inventors. Panitch’s roots run deep in the domestic and international IP communities.

Event Summary


Intellectual property (IP) rights are extremely valuable business assets, particularly in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. With various legal complexities further intensified by the pandemic, protecting inventions has never been an easy task. Biotech and pharma companies have traditionally responded by turning to patent law to protect and recoup the significant investment required for biopharma innovations, but now, there had been a growing trend towards trade secret protection in certain situations as an alternative or add-on to patent protection.

The challenge now is to determine the form of protection that would fit the company’s goals and the circumstances in which such protection would create value. Biotech and pharma institutions need to navigate the tricky legal and regulatory issues surrounding patents and trade secrets to ensure maximum IP protection.


In this LIVE Webcast, IP attorneys Aaron L.J. Pereira (Panitch Schwarze Belisario & Nadel LLP) and John A. Stone (DeCotiis, FitzPatrick, Cole & Giblin, LLP) will provide an in-depth analysis of recent regulatory trends and developments concerning biotech and pharma patents and trade secrets. Speakers will also offer up tips and strategies on how biotech and pharma companies can optimize IP protection using either patents or trade secrets.

Some of the major topics that will be covered in this course are:


• Patent enablement and written description – examining the key changes in the viability of functional claiming in life sciences patents through recent Federal Circuit case law


• Patent arguments and regulatory statements – coordinating representations to agencies to avoid allegations of inequitable conduct


• Patent Infringement – the Federal Circuit reaffirms and clarifies the law on infringement based on generic drug labels and marketing materials


• Drug patent case venue – where do you sue a generic company that has not made a product yet?


• What are trade secrets and what constitutes misappropriation?


• Making your IP eligible for trade secret protection


• Interim remedies and final remedies in trade secret litigation


• Patent eligibility – after a decade of anti-patent case law, recent Federal Circuit decisions represent a swinging back of the patent-eligibility pendulum in favor of innovators


• Examples of biotech and life science being ineligible for patent protection (therefore making trade secret protection desirable)


• Examples of biotech and life science IP trade secret litigation


• Coordinating and using both trade secret and patent protection of biotech and life science IP

About The Knowledge Group


Founded in November 2006, The Knowledge Group has been at the forefront of providing quality continuing education programs for lawyers, accountants, financial executives, risk and compliance specialists, human resources professionals, technology officers, and business consultants in a wide range of industries.

The Knowledge Group strives to be the best-in-class provider of continuing education by bringing forth relevant content you can’t get anywhere else.

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