Biography

Sandip Patel advises companies in the chemical and life sciences industries on all aspects of patent law. He is one of a small group of U.S. patent lawyers with extensive experience in all areas of patent law, including preparing and prosecuting patent applications, patent portfolio management, opinion counseling, inter partes practice before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, litigation in the federal courts, and participation in foreign opposition and litigation matters in China, Europe, and Japan. Clients particularly value this extraordinary breadth of experience in resolving their most complex patent issues.

After graduating from Indiana University’s Maurer School of Law, Sandip joined the firm. There, a collection of the firm’s leading patent lawyers who were working at the cutting edge of the law and biotech and chemical sciences, trained him. As their apprentice, he learned how to write and prosecute patent applications in ways that strategically strengthened patent portfolios for multinational corporations such as BASF, BP Corporation, International Paper Company, Pfizer, and Raytheon Corporation, among many others. Sandip also learned how to draw out of inventors their discoveries. He worked with them to ensure their patents would offer a competitive advantage and withstand adversarial scrutiny and rigorous foreign opposition systems. Now, he pays it forward by working with junior lawyers at the firm to ensure they too learn these critically important skills.

Early in his career, Sandip learned the basics of patent litigation, including how to conduct discovery, position clients for advantageous dispute resolution, and how to prepare for and participate in federal court trials for companies such as Amgen and the Procter and Gamble Company. He also learned how to navigate the complex and often unwritten rules of Patent Office interferences, where he helped clients contend for patents on early cancer treatments, genetically modified plants, and innovations underlying many household consumer products. For more than two decades, he has successfully handled and led contested interferences for many of the companies listed above, and ACCO Brands, Gillette, Monsanto, Newell Rubbermaid, and Pharmacia & Upjohn, as well as smaller companies and universities.

Today he provides clients strategic counseling in all areas of patent law, with a particular focus on Patent Office (AIA) trials whose procedural rules were drawn from those used to administer interferences. And he has spent much of the past decade helping clients, including a Nobel Laureate, obtain a robust portfolio of patents worldwide on fundamental CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing technologies. This includes counseling in multiple foreign oppositions and U.S. patent interferences. In these cases, and many others, he has benefited from cooperatively working with the best among his peers at other law firms in the U.S. and overseas.

The clients he advises are diverse and include specialty chemical companies, universities, start-ups, and a variety of large, multinational corporations focused on biotechnology, chemicals, or consumer products. While many of the clients he helps are not publicly affiliated with the firm, it’s not surprising that the strategic counseling he offers them is purposely shielded from the public eye. New clients find him through recommendations of the above-listed companies and others when they have a particularly challenging issue.

Sandip has a formal education in chemical engineering from Michigan State University (Go Green!), but his work has spanned the entire spectrum of engineering, chemical and life sciences. And through that experience, he has proven adept at quickly grasping diverse technologies and devising efficient intellectual property strategies that clients have used to achieve their business objectives. Sandip also mentors junior lawyers and law school students, and shares his practical insights publicly, having written dozens of articles on various patent law topics.

Sandip’s peers and clients have recognized his legal work and his other successes in numerous attorney directories and awards, including Best Lawyers in America® (since 2016), Illinois Super Lawyers® (since 2013), an “IP Star” (since 2016) in the Managing Intellectual Property IP Stars Survey, a “Life Sciences Star” (since 2016) according to LMG Life Sciences, and a “Leading Lawyer” (since 2019) according to Law Bulletin Media’s Leading Lawyers division. Sandip was also named to the inaugural list and second edition of Lawdragon 500 Leading Litigators in America in 2022 and 2023 respectively. He is thankful for this recognition and, more importantly, for the many clients who have sought his advice for over twenty years, such as Amgen, BASF, and Procter and Gamble. Furthermore, he remains a proud member of the firm, having previously chaired the attorney recruiting committee for ten years and currently serving on the executive committee.

Representative Experience

  • Counseled clients in dozens of inter partes matters in the Patent Office in a variety of sciences including:
    • biotechnology (e.g., antibody formulations, avirulent vaccines, DNA sequencing methods, fundamental CRISPR technologies, genetically-engineered plants, and kerotinocyte growth factors)
    • chemistry/chemical engineering (e.g., pharmaceutical compounds and compositions, food processing chemicals, and chemical and biochemical reactor design and operation)
    • mechanical engineering (e.g., railcar shock absorbers, correction-tape dispensers, paper shredders, computer locks, hand held razors, and baby diapers)
    • electrical engineering (e.g., piezoelectric ink-jet printers, process control systems and software)
  • Counseled clients in patent infringement actions in the federal courts involving:
    • biotechnology patents (e.g., antibody formulations, recombinant growth hormone, recombinant erythropoietin)
    • pharmaceutical chemistry patents (e.g., platinum coordination compounds and methods of treating cancerous tumors)
    • chemical engineering patents (e.g., air pollution control processes and equipment, reaction engineering and reactor design)
    • mechanical engineering (e.g., personal care devices, such as razors and feminine care products, computer locks, and smart device stands/platforms)
  • Prepared and prosecuted to issuance patent applications concerning, for example:
    • consumer products (e.g., baby diapers, feminine hygiene products, dish and laundry cleaning compositions, pens, inks, paints) 
    • industrial products (e.g., semiconductors, construction materials)
    • reaction engineering processes (e.g., catalytic reactors, biochemical reactors, industrial gas combustion turbines, sulfonation processes)
    • chemical compositions and processes (e.g., superabsorbent polymers, commodity chemicals, cleaning solvents)
    • pharmaceutical compositions and associated manufacturing methods (e.g., taxol formulations, antibody formulations, central nervous system analgesics)

Background and Credentials

Sandip has been a partner of the firm since 2002, having joined as an associate following his graduation from law school in 1996. While at the firm, he has drafted and prosecuted hundreds of patent applications, and has served as counsel in dozens of contested proceedings in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and in associated appeals, and as counsel in a number of patent cases in the federal courts. Sandip also served as chairperson of the firm’s Attorney Recruiting Committee for ten years, and currently serves on the firm's Executive Committee. 

Sandip received his J.D. from Indiana University Maurer School of Law, in Bloomington, Indiana, in 1996. During law school, he served as a Notes and Comments Editor of the Indiana Law Journal. He received a B.S. degree (with honors) in chemical engineering from Michigan State University in 1993.

Education

  • Indiana University Maurer School of Law (Bloomington) (J.D.)
  • Michigan State University (B.S.)
    • Chemical Engineering

Bar Admissions

  • Illinois
  • U.S. Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit
  • U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois
  • U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

Publications and Presentations

Representative Inter Partes Matters

AbbVie Inc. v. Amgen Inc.*
U.S. District Court, District of Delaware
Biotechnology (BPCIA)

Coca Cola Inc. v. The Procter & Gamble Company*
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
Inter partes Reexamination
Chemistry

Opposition and Appeal re: Baxter International Inc.* & Baxter Healthcare S.A.*
Boards of Appeal of the European Patent Office
Patent Opposition and Appeal
Chemical Engineering

Stevens (Newell Rubbermaid Inc.)* v. Tamai (Seed Rubber Company)
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
Patent Interference Appeal
Mechanical Engineering

The Broad Institute, Inc., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and President and Fellows of Harvard College v. The Regents of the University of California, University of Vienna, and Emmanuelle Charpentier*
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Patent Trial and Appeal Board
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
Patent Interference
CRISPR-Cas9 technology

*Party Represented

See Sandip's additional Representative Matters.

Community and Professional Involvement

  • American Bar Association
  • American Intellectual Property Law Association
  • Intellectual Property Owners Association
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