Diverse technical and legal expertise. Patent work at Townsend relies on both. We are as well versed in technology as we are in law and patent office practice. We provide attorneys who are knowledgeable in all subtechnologies of electronics, chemistry, biology, and mechanical engineering. All of our patent attorneys have technical degrees; a third have advanced technical degrees: and half have practical scientific or engineering work experience. Several attorneys are former patent examiners.

The wealth of talent is invaluable in an emerging field such as biotechnology, where a client requesting a specialist may require an expert in protein chemistry, immunology, or molecular biology. In fields that cross-multidisciplinary lines, our unique mix of technological experience helps us meet the challenge of patenting hybrid technologies.

Since many of patent attorneys are engineers, we understand engineers' concerns as well as their schematics.

We maintain our high level of technical competence through training and intro-office communications among our San Francisco, Palo Alto, Seattle and Denver locations. Our lawyers often take courses we periodically hire outside authorities to teach internal courses on topics ranging from semiconductor manufacturing and micro-processor technology to oncogenes and molecular immunology.

With a client list as broad as the Silicon Valley, we handle more patent work than any other firm in the West. But our scope is worldwide, with numerous domestic and overseas clients.

An international network of associates enables us to deal with every patent office in the world, whether it means helping a client understand the requirements of a French confidentiality agreement, or responding to patent infringement actions in Taiwan.

Doing business in the global marketplace requires protecting property in Europe and Asia, as well as at home. Not only do our attorneys speak the language of science, but many are conversant in European and Asian languages as well as customs.

We have represented the University of California since the beginning of its patent technology and licensing program and we do on going work for Stanford University and the Washington Research Foundation. We pride ourselves on being responsive to our clients' needs. This attitude, coupled with our size and resources, helps up respond quickly and file patent applications within the demanding time limits imposed by United States and foreign patent laws. Our proprietary computer-based docketing system helps us constantly track each client's patent properties in the U. S. and in dozens of foreign countries.

Our goal is to keep our clients out of court---with well-researched, strongly written patents and lawyers who know how to license and negotiate. Our prosecutors work in unison with our litigators to obtain patent protection that will hold up in court.

We have assembled an expert team of patent prosecution and trial attorneys who are skilled at analyzing competitor's patent portfolios as they apply to our clients' products, invalidating competitors' claims, and negotiating licensing agreements with favorable royalties compared to the standards of the relevant industry.

Chemical/Biotechnology

Having been at the forefront of the biotechnology industry since its inception, we are now assisting clients in obtaining broad patent protection in the traditional chemical and pharmaceutical disciplines and in such groundbreaking technologies as genetic therapy, growth factor cloning, transgenic animals, molecular immunology, and anti-sense therapy. We have also conducted several interferences on various complex technical subjects.

To meet the industry's growing needs, many of our attorneys have Ph.D.'s and direct technical experience. Several have worked in the fields of organic chemistry, molecular biology, and immunology.

As technology moves forward at an unprecedented rate, Townsend's multidisciplinary approach and expertise continue to assist established companies such as Bio-Rad Laboratories Inc. and DNAX Research Institute. We have also represented Protein Design Labs, Inc., MircoProbe Corporation, DNA Plant Technology Corporation and numerous other biotechnology companies, essentially from start-up, in developing their significant patent portfolios.

As an example of our work, the very large scale immobilized polymersynthesis (VLSIPS) patent we successfully prosecuted for Affymax Technologies, N.V. established a fundamental advance in a marriage of biotechnology and semiconductor fabrication for drug screening.

Electronics and Software

Survival in a high-tech business requires good patents---and knowledge of what patents the competition has. We are skilled at writing strong patents that keep the competition at bay. All of our patent prosecutors have technical training; many of then are experienced in analog and digital circuitry, computer programming, and semiconductor process engineering.

The depth of our technological and legal expertise allows us to prosecute patents for clients in the multimedia, telecommunications, cable television, semiconductor, logic design, optical imaging, computer architecture, and software industries.

Established electronics companies such as Xerox Corp., Hyundai Corp., Hitachi, Ltd., Mitsubishi Electric Corp., and Tandem Computers Inc. have turned to Townsend because the firm has excelled in electronics patents for years, with an unrivaled record of prosecution-negotiation, and licensing. We have also handled patent work for emerging companies such as Altera Corp., a pioneer in the field of programmable logic.

Our attorneys are familiar with the patent portfolios of companies such as American Telephone and Telegraph Co., International Business Machines Corp., NEC Electronics, Inc., and Texas Instruments, Inc., as well as such controversial patents as those for the Hyatt and Intel Microprocessors and the Hayes modem.

Mechanical/Medical Devises.

The firm's mechanical/medical devices group includes several hundred claims, ranging from small start-up companies to giants with worldwide sales exceeding $500 million. Many of these clients depend on Townsend's expertise in medical devices and implants.

We assist companies that make the practice of medicine more efficient. Currently we are working with leading-edge technology in areas including oophorectomy, cardiovascular imaging, laparoscopic and endoscopic surgery, drug delivery, vascular catheters, and electro-physiology.

Our attorneys have secured patents and negotiated licenses for transformers, catheters, and devices such as those used in bone marrow implants, as well as for a variety of surgical and imaging devices used for minimally invasive laparoscopic and cardiovascular procedures.