Joann Neth

Joann M. Neth, Ph.D., focuses her practice on patent and trade secret litigation in federal and state courts, client counseling, and opinion matters. She works closely with in-house attorneys of major domestic and international chemical and pharmaceutical companies in order to understand their technologies and business objectives and to provide them with practical, well-informed legal advice.

Joann has extensive experience in all aspects of litigation throughout the United States, from the pre-litigation investigation/opinion stage through pleadings, discovery, hearings, and ultimately, trial.

She has litigated in a wide variety of technological areas, including pharmaceuticals, polymer and plastic materials, polymerization processes and catalysts, cosmetics, textiles, bioethanol from bacterial fermentation, papermaking, and cryogenic distillation. She has particular experience in trade secret litigation and in Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) litigation on behalf of pharmaceutical patent holders.

Joann also assists clients in exploring and employing alternatives to litigation, such as design-around options, settlement negotiation, mediation, and arbitration. She also has represented patent owners in inter partes review (IPR) proceedings before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

In addition to her litigation work, Joann’s practice includes the preparation of opinions on complex patent validity, enforceability, and infringement issues involving chemical technologies.

She also provides due diligence counseling and opinion advice on intellectual property transfers arising from joint venture formation. Joann has served as head of the firm’s litigation section and on the management committee.

Education :

• University of Virginia School of Law J.D., 1989
• Brown University Ph.D., Physical Organic Chemistry, 1987
• Bryn Mawr College A.B., Chemistry, 1981

Admissions :

• District of Columbia
• U.S. District Court, District of Columbia
• U.S. Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit
• Supreme Court of the United States
• U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

Professional Activities :

• District of Columbia Bar
• American Bar Association
• Federal Circuit Bar Association
• American Intellectual Property Law Association
• American Chemical Society
• Women’s Bar Association of the District of Columbia