Gerald F. Swiss

Jerry Swiss is a retired partner and intellectual property lawyer with Foley & Lardner LLP. He concentrated his practice on strategic counseling, including implementation of IP strategy for clients in the biopharmaceutical, life science and medical device arenas. Mr. Swiss had approximately 35 years of IP experience in patent prosecution directed to protecting small molecules, chemical processes, enzymes, and medical devices. In particular, he has handled a significant amount of IP work on new chemical entity scaffolds for the treatment of cancers, anemia, thrombosis, and inflammatory diseases. He was a member of the firm’s Chemical, Biotechnology & Pharmaceutical Practice.

In addition to his patent prosecution skills, Mr. Swiss’ legal experience included developing international patent strategies for critical lead compounds and new discovery platforms, addressing due diligence, freedom to operate, validity and infringement/non-infringement analyses, as well as patent procurement.

Mr. Swiss started his career as a medicinal research chemist at Schering Corporation, where he worked in the synthesis of small molecules in the pharmaceutical arena. His research focused on anti-inflammatory and anti-hypertensive compounds.

Recognition

In recognition of his experience, he has been Peer Review Rated as AV® Preeminent™, the highest performance rating in Martindale-Hubbell's peer review rating system. He has been selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America® since 2012 and The Legal 500 also recognized Mr. Swiss in 2011 and 2013 as one of the leading lawyers in the U.S. for patent prosecution: utility and design patents. He was also recognized among IAM Patent 1000 – The World’s Leading Patent Practitioners (2012-2016). In 2015, Mr. Swiss was named an IP Star by Managing Intellectual Property magazine. Past clients have noted his writing skills and strategic counseling, both of which have made Mr. Swiss highly sought-after by pharmaceutical companies.

Education

Mr. Swiss received his J.D. from Seton Hall University School of Law (cum laude, 1981). He earned his M.S. in organic chemistry from the University of Chicago (1976) and his B.S. in chemistry from the University of Notre Dame (cum laude, 1975).