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Jennifer P. Nock
Primary Areas of Practice
Overview
Jennifer Nock ("Jen") focuses her practice on patent matters including litigation, prosecution, post-grant proceedings (IPRs, PGRs, ex parte reexaminations), licensing, opinions, and counseling. She is particularly experienced working with pharmaceutical companies, including brand and generic small molecule products, and innovator biologics and biosimilar companies. Jen also has experience working with clients in a variety of other industries, including consumer electronics, online education, and cosmetics.
Simultaneously detail-oriented and creative, Jen is a relentless and tenacious strategist. She and her team do not settle for the first answer or rely on initial conclusions, but will keep digging into the facts, the law, the prior art, and the patent landscape until they find a winning strategy. Much of her work is shaped by her scientific background, including a Master’s degree in chemistry from Harvard and a deep background in pharmaceuticals and biotechnology. Jen is a persuasive writer, talented at distilling complex topics down to their essentials. Her briefs and memos are clear, concise, and compelling.
Her exceptional abilities are brought to bear on a wide range of client needs and situations, beginning with U.S.-based patent litigation, where she manages Hatch-Waxman and other district court matters, from before the filing of the complaint through trial. Jen also handles appeals to the Federal Circuit, where she previously clerked for then-Chief Judge Randall R. Rader. In this role she drafts pleadings, develops litigation strategies, takes and defends depositions, works with experts to develop excellent scientific support for her clients’ positions, examines witnesses at trial, and presents Markman (claim construction) arguments and other motions. She is particularly gifted at developing strong non-infringement and invalidity strategies.
Jen is also skilled at developing freedom-to-operate searches that efficiently identify relevant competitor patents that could prove problematic, preparing invalidity and non-infringement opinions, post-grant challenges at the USPTO / PTAB (IPR, PGR and ex parte reexaminations), and patent portfolio development strategy. She counsels clients on domestic patent prosecution and coordinates worldwide prosecution strategies, including analysis of invention disclosures and existing patent applications in order to craft the strongest possible patent protection. Her work also encompasses trade secrets, FDA regulatory strategy, and other FDA issues, including compliance reviews for pharmaceutical marketing. Jen has extensive experience negotiating patent licenses, material transfer agreements, confidentiality agreements, and joint development agreements.
She is known for being a true partner to her clients. With her extensive scientific background, she is a born problem-solver and proficient in the efficient, thorough analysis of patent issues to arrive at the right answer. She always seeks the best legal approach to meet client needs, and in concert with her colleagues at Rothwell Figg, builds smart, hardworking, and dedicated teams.
A talented, innovative, and exceptionally knowledgeable attorney, Jen’s clients have come to depend on her proven abilities to manage a wide range of issues, from the extremely complex to the straightforward, in a manner that’s efficient, strategically appropriate, and cost-effective.
Experience
Jen handles a variety of patent law matters, including patent litigation, patent prosecution, licensing, due diligence, opinions, and counseling. She has litigated and prosecuted patents in a variety of technical fields, but her practice has particularly focused on pharmaceuticals and biologics. Jen has litigated numerous Hatch-Waxman and patent infringement cases, both in district court and on appeal to the Federal Circuit. She has cross-examined experts and led direct witness testimony at trial, argued Markman hearings and a Federal Circuit appeal, conducted and defended fact and expert witnesses’ depositions, and managed all aspects of fact discovery. Jen’s practice also includes pre-litigation counseling and advising on strategic regulatory matters involving the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Jen has represented patent owners and challengers in post-grant proceedings at the USPTO, including inter partes reviews (IPRs), post-grant reviews (PGRs), and ex parte reexaminations of patents involving novel protein therapeutics and antibody formulations, among other technologies. Jen also leads due diligence investigations involving novel biologics, biosimilars, and multi-billion dollar acquisitions of pharmaceutical assets, including conducting freedom-to-operate searches and working with her clients to develop design-around and invalidation strategies when appropriate. Jen provides strategic guidance and world-wide prosecution support to innovators in the biologics field, helping her clients craft litigation-ready patent portfolios.
Jen’s experience includes:
- Representing Synthon Pharmaceuticals in Hatch-Waxman litigation challenging patents related to IBRANCE® (palbociclib) in In re: Palbociclib Patent Litigation, MDL NO. 19-2912-CFC (D. Del.), and related cases in the Middle District of North Carolina (ongoing).
- Represented a Fortune 100 consumer electronics company against patent infringement claims involving smart deadbolt technology. Obtained transfer of venue from the Southern District of Texas to the Northern District of California, prevailed in claim construction leading to stipulation of non-infringement, and obtained affirmance at the Federal Circuit. Successfully invalidated all asserted claims in a concurrent IPR and argued appeal to the Federal Circuit, resulting in Rule 36 affirmance. See, e.g., Kilbourne v. August Home, Inc., No. 2020-1665 (Fed. Cir. 2021) (affirming PTAB in IPR2019-00233).
- Represented patent owner, Coherus Biosciences, in obtaining non-institution of PGR2019-00064, which involved challenges under § 112 to a patent claiming formulations for adalimumab.
- Represented Synthon Pharmaceuticals in successfully invalidating patents claiming a dosing regimen for the injectable multiple sclerosis drug, Copaxone® (glatiramer acetate). In re: Copaxone 40mg Consolidated Cases, No. 1:14-cv-001172-GMS (D. Del.), aff’d 906 F.3d 1013 (Fed. Cir. 2018).
- Represented Synthon Pharmaceuticals in litigation involving patents relating to a method for manufacturing glatiramer acetate, In re Copaxone 775 Patent Litigation, No. 16-1267-GMS (D. Del.). Case settled favorably for client following claim construction.
- Represented Coherus Biosciences in multiple petitions for IPR challenging patents related to Enbrel® (etanercept) and Humira® (adalimumab).
- Represented Actavis in litigation involving a topical treatment for rosacea, Mirvaso® (brimonidine tartrate). Presented Actavis’ claim construction at Markman hearing. Galderma Labs., L.P. v. Actavis Labs. UT, Inc., No. 15-232-LPS (D. Del.).
- Represented Watson Pharmaceuticals / Actavis in Hatch-Waxman litigation challenging patents relating to the crystalline tartrate salt of levalbuterol. See Sunovion Pharm. Inc. v. Watson Pharms. Inc., No. 12-993-LPS (D. Del.). Cases settled favorably for client following a four-day trial and post-trial briefing.
- Represented Breckenridge Pharmaceuticals in obtaining summary judgment of non-infringement in Braintree Labs., Inc. v. Breckenridge Pharm., Inc., No. 12-6851-AJN (S.D.N.Y.) (reversed on appeal).
- Represented Cobalt Labs / Watson Pharmaceuticals in Hatch-Waxman litigation involving the anti-seizure medication Lyrica® (pregabalin). Pfizer Inc. v. Cobalt Laboratories Inc., Civil Action No. 09-315-GMS (D. Del.)
- Successfully defended appeal of client Geox S.p.A’s invalidation of claims in IPR. Outdry Techs. Corp. v. Geox S.p.A., No. 16-1769 (CAFC).
Honors & Recognitions
Intellectual Asset Management’s (IAM) Patent 1000 – The World’s Leading Patent Professionals (2023-2024)
Ranked for Prosecution in the DC Metro Area
World Intellectual Property Review (WIPR) Leader (2024)
LMG Life Sciences (2023)
Named a Rising Star
Washington, D.C. Super Lawyer (2022-2024)
Washington, D.C. Super Lawyers "Rising Star" (2017-2021)
Shortlisted for U.S. Rising Star in Intellectual Property by LMG Life Sciences Americas Awards (2021)
Newsroom
News
Speaking Engagements
Panelist, Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) IP Counsel Committee (IPCC) Spring Conference, From Allegation to Adjudication: Preparing for Patent Litigation (April 12, 2018).
Publications
Jennifer Nock & Sreekar Gadde, Raising the Bar for Nonobviousness: An Empirical Study of Federal Circuit Case Law Following KSR, 20 Fed. Cir. B.J. 369 (2011).
Katerina Horska, Andrew J. Welz, Heather Filemyr, and Jennifer Nock, Past Performance: Protest or Dispute? The 2010 McKenna Long & Aldridge “Gilbert A. Cuneo” Government Contracts Moot Court Competition, 39 Pub. Cont. L.J. 947 (Summer 2010).
Thalladi VR, Schwartz A, Phend JN, Hutchinson JW, Whitesides GM. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2002, 21; 124(33): 9912-7. “Simulation of indentation fracture in crystalline materials using mesoscale self-assembly.”
Sotzing GA, Phend JN, Grubbs RH, Lewis NS. Chemistry of Materials 2000, 12, 593-595. “Highly sensitive detection and discrimination of biogenicamines utilizing arrays of polyaniline/carbon black composite vapor detectors.”
Community & Professional
Federal Circuit Bar Association (FCBA)
American Bar Association (ABA)
Practices
- Appellate Litigation
- Biosimilars Litigation
- Counseling, Transactions, and Guidance
- Ex Parte Reexaminations
- FDA Regulatory
- Hatch-Waxman Litigation
- Inter Partes Review (IPR) and Post Grant Review (PGR)
- Licensing and Transactions
- Opinions, Freedom to Operate, and Patentability Analysis
- Patent Litigation
- Patent Prosecution
Education
J.D., The George Washington University Law School (with Highest Honors, Order of the Coif)
A.M., Chemistry, Harvard University
B.S., Chemistry & B.S. Physics, University of Richmond (summa cum laude)
Bar & Court Admissions
Bar Admissions
- District of Columbia
- Virginia
- U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
Court Admissions
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
- U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia
- U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia
- Supreme Court of Virginia
Clerkships
- Judge Randall R. Rader