David Woodward

David Woodward

OF COUNSEL

David Woodward has been a patent attorney for more than 25 years, procuring patents and counseling clients in the chemical, biotechnology, and pharmaceutical fields. After graduating from Virginia Tech with a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering, Mr. Woodward worked for nearly five years as a Patent Examiner at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office examining patent applications directed to polymer compositions and methods of making and using polymers. He attended George Washington University Law School in Washington, DC, graduating first in his class. This background has equipped Mr. Woodward with an excellent skill set for advising clients by considering both the legal and technical aspects of the intellectual property issue at hand.

Mr. Woodward works with inventors and their businesses to fully understand the technology and the desired business goals to develop a commercially valuable strategy for protecting intellectual property. After a complete review of the technical, legal, and practical issues, Mr. Woodward is able to separate the wheat from the chaff to focus and often simplify issues and present them (for example to the client business and/or Examiner) in a coherent and pragmatic way to achieve clear work product and desired results for clients.

As a former Patent Examiner and by working with Examiners for years, Mr. Woodward has developed an appreciation of beneficial approaches to take during both drafting and prosecuting patent applications. He has developed excellent relationships and rapport with PTO Examiners and frequently conducts interviews with Examiners, often with inventors and in-house counsel present, to facilitate prosecution. He prides himself on collegially working and negotiating with the USPTO to achieve beneficial results for clients.

Should an appeal at the USPTO be necessary, Mr. Woodward has extensive experience drafting appeal briefs and conducting oral arguments before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board. He handles post-grant proceedings as well as advises clients on intellectual property licensing issues and opinion matters, including on due diligence, freedom to operate, audits, validity, and infringement issues. Mr. Woodward has extensive experience in working in-person and via phone or video with foreign counsel to prosecute cases outside the United States and working with in-house counsel to develop a coordinated strategy for world-wide protection of an invention. He has frequently worked on prosecuting U.S. cases where a corresponding non-U.S. application or related U.S. case is undergoing adversarial proceedings, such as an opposition, and is adept at ensuring prosecution is aligned with other ongoing proceedings for family members and related patent matters. He enjoys discussing matters with inventors and applicants in order to develop an excellent working relationship and to fully understand a client’s goals for the project at hand. In addition to working collaboratively with other patent practitioners, Mr. Woodward frequently works with in-house general practice attorneys as well as individuals in marketing and others with expertise in areas besides patent law. He is skilled at working collectively and communicating clearly with numerous areas of a business to achieve favorable business goals and patents that provide desired claim scope and product coverage. While obtaining a patent is important to an applicant, Mr. Woodward additionally focuses on the business goals and reasons for obtaining the patent in an effort to obtain a patent of the most value to the client’s business.

Mr. Woodward previously worked for years on chemical and pharmaceutical patent litigation matters, including in high-stakes Hatch-Waxman litigation. This extensive litigation experience, where patents and their prosecution histories are put under a microscope for possible challenges, continuously guides him in advising, drafting, and prosecuting patents for clients.

Mr. Woodward has extensive experience in many areas of chemical, pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and chemical engineering technologies, including in small molecules, chemical and biological compositions, pesticides, silicone chemistry, polymers, textiles, dyes, ceramics, coatings, food-products, pharmaceutical products and devices, chemical and biological processes and methods, medical devices, and chemical and biomedical engineering. He works with large multinational chemical and pharmaceutical companies as well as with start-up and mid-sized companies and universities based in the U.S and abroad to help them with their intellectual property and patent concerns.  

Education

George Washington University School of Law
J.D.
first in class

Virginia Polytechnic Institute (Virginia Tech)
B.S., Chemical Engineering