Ravinderjit Braich, Ph.D.

My focus

I focus my practice on helping clients, including hospitals, research institutes, and small and medium-sized companies, devise and pursue effective strategies for protecting their breakthrough technologies. I have experience in a wide range of technologies, including small molecules, nucleic acid-based technologies (RNAi, activating RNAs, antisense nucleic acids, and microRNAs), peptides, antibodies, prodrugs and drug conjugates, anesthetics, diagnostic/imaging agents, antiviral agents, cancer vaccines, semi-conductor materials, drug targeting and drug delivery, microfluidic devices, drug delivery devices, diagnostic devices, and biomimetic devices. This work involves their synthesis, purification, and use.

Patent Prosecution

I focus on strategic patent counseling and prosecution in the areas of chemicals, diagnostics, therapeutics, and pharmaceuticals in all phases of development, within and outside the United States.

Patent Portfolio Management

I work closely with corporations, universities, and licensee counsel on strategic management and growth of their patent portfolios.

Opinion Work

I work with clients in varieties of industries to conduct patentability and freedom to operate analysis and competitive intelligence and analysis in areas of small molecules, nucleic acids, polymers, and diagnostic methods and devices.

European Union Unitary Patent (UP) and Unified Patent Court (UPC)

I counsel clients on how the new European Union Unitary Patent and the opening of the Unified Patent Court (UPC) will affect all pending European applications and patents.

Representative experience

• Provide a broad range of patent services, including patent portfolio management, to the following:
  •  A start-up company involved in cancer therapeutics and targeted drug delivery; work closely with the client in the strategic development of their IP portfolio
  • A pharmaceutical company involved in RNAi therapeutics; work closely with the client in the strategic development of their IP portfolio in core platform technologies related to RNAi
• Helped develop the following:
  • A patent portfolio directed to new anesthetics for a large hospital-based research organization; work with the client and licensee to devise and execute strategies that extract the greatest value from the portfolio
  • Two separate patent portfolios directed in the diagnostic space for a large hospital-based research organization; work with the client and licensees to devise and execute strategies that extract the greatest value from the portfolio
• Represented a company spun out of UCLA  developing novel oxysterol compositions for a range of clinical uses in patent prosecution and IP counseling

Looking ahead

Unless the Supreme Court reverses the “full scope” requirement, I expect to see more challenges to patents based on the written description/enablement requirements, not only in the chemical and biotechnology spaces but also in the high-tech space.

Insights

Selected publications

• “More certainty on limits to early §101 challenges—How will this impact patent owners and applicants?” Intellectual Property & Technology Law Journal, May 2020 (co-author)
• “A year out and a Supreme Court case still leaves patent questions unanswered,” Intellectual Property & Technology Law Journal, December 2019 (co-author)
• “Some clarity to method of treatment claims from the Supreme Court?” Nixon Peabody Intellectual Property Alert, April 29, 2020
• “Personalized treatment patenting in light of Vanda v. West-Ward,” Nixon Peabody Intellectual Property Alert, March 24, 2020
• “Personalized therapy and subject matter eligibility,” Nixon Peabody Intellectual Property Alert, December 16, 2019

Selected speaking engagements

• “A brief introduction to IP for start-ups,” Starta Ventures, New York, August 2022
• “Basics of intellectual property,” Starta Ventures, New York, March 2022
• “Intellectual property rights,” Institute for Biomedical Entrepreneurship, Cambridge, Massachusetts, November 2021
• “Patents, trademarks, and copyrights,” Starta Ventures, New York, September 2021
• “IP considerations for start-ups,” Starta Ventures, New York, New York, September 2020
• “I’m a start-up. What is intellectual property, and do I need it?” Starta Ventures, New York, May 2020
• “Patentability of diagnosis and method of treatment claims in the US,” Harvard University, February 2020
• “Patenting diagnosis and method of treatment claims in the US,” Children’s Medical Centre Corp., Boston, February 2020
• “Why think about intellectual property for start-ups?” Starta Ventures, New York, September 2019
• “Intellectual property—A brief primer,” The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) New York City Chapter, September 2019