An In-House Counsel View on Patent Strategy and Building Relationships

This week our conversation takes us in-house to discuss patent strategy and insights on how outside counsel can best work with in-house counsel to build solid working relationship and actually deliver what the client wants and needs.

My conversation is with my friend Gary Lobel, who is currently senior patent counsel for Reckitt where he is responsible for global legal and intellectual property matters for several different business units within the Reckitt family. In this role Gary plans and implements global intellectual property strategies in the area of biotechnology, pharmacologic and nutritional and topical formulations. He works with in-house constituencies, evaluates opportunities for potential partnerships and acquisitions, and he manages outside counsel working on both patent procurement and litigation related matters. Prior to joining Reckitt, Gary was Chief Patent Counsel for Nestlé and he also worked at Novartis.

I always enjoy my conversations with Gary, who is extremely bright and very thoughtful, and I love having him speak on panels and I’m very happy to bring this conversation to IPWatchdog Unleashed. In short, every time I chat with Gary he teaches me something. Gary has a knack for seeing all sides to every issue or problem as if he is constantly playing a game of 3D chess and is at least several moves ahead.

In our conversation this week, which went for well over an hour but has been edited down a bit, we had a wide ranging conversation on patent strategy, including working with patent examiners—including difficult patent examiners—the importance of interviews, tips for getting past 112 rejections, and how outside counsel can build solid, working relationships with in-house counsel, and much more.