David Maher , Ph.D.

Dr. Maher has over 12 years of experience in the procurement, enforcement, and licensing of intellectual property. His practice focuses on patent prosecution, opinion work, and licensing, principally for the biotechnological, chemical, and medical device industries. He has considerable experience in European patent opposition practice, reissue and reexamination proceedings, and portfolio analysis and diligence reviews in conjunction with investments, licensing, and mergers and acquisitions. David’s practice also benefits from substantial experience in dispute resolution regarding patent infringement, licensing, and inventorship disputes and trade secret theft.

David has represented a variety of entities, including major corporations, universities, start-ups and spin-offs, and individual inventors. As a result of his time in industry, David is acutely aware of the issues facing in-house counsel and can assist in meeting corporate goals. David’s current and former clients include:

Abbott Laboratories Amgen California Institute of Technology Chiron Eli Lilly Genentech Monsanto The Regents of the University of California Roche Molecular Systems Sloan-Kettering Institute of Cancer Research SRI International, and SUGEN

A number of clients David has represented have been successfully acquired, including GeoMed (acquired by Titan Pharmaceuticals), MetaXen (acquired by Exelixis Pharmaceuticals), SUGEN (acquired by Pharmacia Corporation for $750 million), and Quantum Dots (acquired by Invitrogen). Patent portfolios he has developed have been described as “very well protected” and “airtight” by his clients’ management after diligence review by third parties.

David has worked with technologies including molecular and cellular biology, hybridization assays, solid phase and solution array detection methods and devices, DNA amplification and sequencing, fluorescent imaging and detection, fluorescence energy transfer, semiconductor nanocrystals, dye chemistry, cytometry, kinases and kinase inhibitors, cytology and histology, immunology, antibodies, medical diagnostics and treatment methods, transgenic plants, oncology, virology, microbiology, enzymology, pharmaceutical chemistry, formulations, drug delivery, chemical synthesis, organic chemistry, inorganic chemistry, organometallics, polymer chemistry, siloxanes, optoelectronic materials and devices, and pollution control.

David received his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of Notre Dame, where he was named a Notre Dame Scholar. He received his Ph.D. in the Biochemistry Division of the Chemistry Department at the University of California, San Diego, where he studied the structure-function relationship of oncogenes, growth factors and receptors, gaining skills in molecular and cellular biology and biochemistry. At the University of Washington Medical Center, he served as a Senior Fellow in the Vascular Biology Program, where he studied tyrosine phosphatase expression and function in vascular smooth muscle cells. He earned his J.D. from Santa Clara University, where he was named an Emery School of Law Scholar.

Dr. Maher is admitted to practice in California and before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. He is a member of the American Intellectual Property Law Association, the Licensing Executives Society, the San Diego Intellectual Property Law Association, the American Chemical Society, the Alpha Chi Sigma chemistry fraternity and the Phi Kappa Phi and Alpha Epsilon Delta Honor Societies. In addition to the practice of law, he enjoys astronomy, wine tasting, traveling, skiing, struggling with golf, spending time with his family and coaching Little League.

David can be reached by telephone at 858.228.7829, by facsimile at 858.350.9691, and by electronic mail at david@biotechnologylawgroup.com.