Courtenay Brinckerhoff is an intellectual property lawyer, assisting international clients with all aspects of obtaining, defending, evaluating, licensing, and enforcing patents; and conducting freedom-to-operate and due diligence investigations. She is a partner and vice chair of the firm’s Intellectual Property Department, as well as the editor and primary author for Foley’s PharmaPatentsBlog.com, where she analyzes evolving patent office practices and precedential court decisions on emerging legal issues.

For more than 25 years, Courtenay has represented clients in diverse industries before the U.S. Patent Office, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. She has successfully represented clients in complex patent matters, including four-party interference, Inter partes Reexaminations, Inter partes Reviews, and ANDA litigation.

Courtenay works with clients across the chemical and biotechnology industries, including on innovations for pharmaceuticals and drug-device products, human and animal food products and nutraceuticals, and industrial technologies. Clients trust Courtenay to secure critical intellectual patent rights, including patents intended for listing in the Orange Book or eligible for listing in the Purple Book.

She has particular experience with transdermal pharmaceutical products (patches, gels, and liquids), oral dosage forms (including controlled/extended-release formulations), enzyme-based technologies, microbial technologies, diagnostic and therapeutic antibodies, active and passive immunization therapies, and personalized medicine, as well as with industrial films, carbon nanotube technologies, biofuels, and carbon capture technologies.

Courtenay has served as vice chair of the firm’s Chemical, Biotechnology & Pharmaceutical Practice and is an active member of the firm’s PTAB Trials Practice and Life Sciences Industry Team.

Prior to joining Foley as an associate, Courtenay clerked for the Honorable Alvin Anthony Schall on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Prior to her clerkship, she worked at Foley as a patent agent and law clerk.