Gary J. Speier

Gary Speier is a registered U.S. patent attorney with a focus on issues facing companies in the life sciences sectors. He provides counsel on a broad range of patent-related matters and regularly conducts pre-suit investigations, intellectual property valuations, and IP due diligence. Gary provides freedom-to-operate clearance reviews and opinions relating to infringement and validity and develops patent procurement and patent prosecution strategies for domestic, international, and foreign jurisdictions.

He has been involved in numerous post-grant proceedings (e.g., ex parte reexaminations and inter partes reviews) in front of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The post-grant proceedings have involved patents across diverse technology areas (e.g., medical devices, drug delivery systems, polymers, pharmaceuticals, new chemical entities, and process manufacturing).

Gary has a strong technical and scientific background, as well as extensive, firsthand experience in USPTO practice and procedure. For the past several years, Gary has devoted significant time to preparing opinions relating to pharmaceutical patents and has prepared and served numerous Hatch Waxman “Paragraph IV” notice letters and detailed statements. He also has represented generic pharmaceutical companies in ANDA patent litigations. In addition to his work in the pharmaceutical arena, Gary’s practice covers a variety of other technologies, including medical devices, drug delivery systems, natural products, nutraceuticals, polymers, biofuels, renewable energy, sustainable chemistry, process manufacturing, solar silicon purification, agriculture, pesticides, and organic synthesis.

During law school, Gary worked as a law clerk in the patent group at SmithKline Beecham (now Glaxo SmithKline). After earning his graduate degree in chemistry, Gary worked as a medicinal chemist at Sterling Winthrop Pharmaceuticals, where he designed and synthesized candidate inhibitors of the cysteine protease enzyme, Interleukin–1–ß Converting Enzyme (ICE), for the treatment of chronic inflammatory diseases.

Gary has co-authored several peer-reviewed articles published in scientific journals and is a named inventor on several U.S. patents. He has been an invited lecturer in the United States, Europe, and Asia on various IP matters, including freedom-to-operate, Paragraph IV opinions, and IP valuation. He