Melanie Szweras is a partner with Bereskin & Parr LLP. Melanie’s practice focuses on biotechnology and pharmaceutical patents including drafting and prosecution of such applications; providing validity and freedom to operate opinions as well as patent litigation matters. Melanie also advises on regulatory matters, such as labeling and advertising, for consumer goods and regulated products such as food and drugs.

Melanie is a lecturer for the second-year Intellectual Property Law Course at the Lincoln Alexander School of Law at Ryerson University. She also lectures on aspects of Biotechnology and The Application Process at the University of Toronto’s Patent & Trade Secrets Law course and Osgoode Hall’s LLM Patent Law course.

Ron Cahill is well-respected for his work with clients of virtually all sizes to solve their most challenging intellectual property problems.  A first chair IP trial attorney and Chair of the Barnes & Thornburg national Life Sciences Practice Group, he specializes in breaking down complex life sciences intellectual property issues for juries, judges, and the PTAB.  Clients also ask him to present strategic intellectual property options to their management and boards, including whether to launch litigation and how to gain leverage in business, investment, and licensing negotiations.

Ron’s work covers a wide range of life sciences products, technologies, and legal issues, with recent engagements including CAR-T cancer treatments, small molecule enzyme inhibitors, personalized medicine, and genetic engineering of metabolic systems to produce desired outputs.  Recent legal issues have included the scope of written description and enablement in the drug discovery context, the obviousness of engineered biologics, infringement based on biochemical function and property limitations, induced infringement of method of treatment claims, and the strategic use of IPRs to avoid litigation.

Jason Lief is a premier patent trial lawyer with 25 years of experience. He has litigated and tried dozens of major patent and other intellectual property cases on behalf of some of the world’s most innovative and dynamic companies, often involving billion-dollar products. Applying his legal and scientific training, Jason has established a reputation for winning outcomes and courtroom excellence.

Jason’s cases include major Hatch-Waxman pharmaceutical litigations (Zantac®, Wellbutrin®, Wellbutrin SR®, Wellbutrin XL®, Ceftin®, Intuniv®, Vyvanse®, Oxtellar XR®, Angiomax®, and Lialda®), as well as biotech, chemical, and consumer product patent cases. Jason has also litigated trade secret, trademark, copyright, and IP contract disputes. He has argued before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and appeared in foreign courts pursuant to the Hague Convention.  Jason has also successfully litigated in the inter partes review (IPR) arena.