Conti, Erika L.

David focuses primarily on intellectual property issues as they relate to companies in the biotechnology industry. He has significant experience in a wide array of these issues relating to such diverse technologies as diagnostic assays, vaccination, drug delivery, pharmaceuticals and biopharmaceuticals, and genetic analysis. David particularly enjoys working with technologies relating to immunology, nucleic acid biochemistry, and genetics.

More specifically, David has prepared and/or prosecuted foreign and domestic patent applications directed to nucleic acid diagnostic assays, peptide therapeutics, small organic molecules, methods of prevention or treatment of disease, and methods and vehicles for delivery of macromolecular drugs, among others.

David's practice also includes preparing opinions of counsel relating to patent infringement, patent validity, patentability of inventions, and freedom to operate, as well as conducting IP due diligence for potential investors into companies in the biotech industry. For example, he has investigated the state of the art relating to particular treatments for hepatitis C viral infections and for migraine headaches and recently evaluated several macromolecules as potential targets for drug discovery assays.

Furthermore, David's practice includes counseling clients on issues relating to in-licensed patent portfolios, particularly commenting on prosecution strategies for applications within a portfolio and evaluating the scope of protection afforded by a patent portfolio. Before joining Jones Day in 2004, David practiced at Pennie & Edmonds LLP, an intellectual property boutique.

David's graduate research investigated energy transduction in a nitrogen fixing Senegalese soil bacterium, Azorhizobium caulinodans. The results of these investigations were published in 2001 in a paper entitled "Azorhizobium caulinodans pyruvate dehydrogenase activity is dispensable for aerobic but required for microaerobic growth" (Pauling, et al., 2001, Microbiology 147:2233-2245).