Nancy J. Linck Esq.

Rothwell, Figg, Ernst & Manbeck, P.C.
Linck, Nancy J.

Dr. Nancy Linck, a Partner in Rothwell, Figg, Ernst & Manbeck, P.C., specializes in intellectual property law, particularly in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical areas. She has a wide range of experience in private and corporate practice, including consulting and litigation at both trial and appellate levels and inter partes matters before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). In addition, she has served as an expert in numerous patent cases and as an arbitrator. She has training as a mediator and is a mediator on the Federal Circuit Appellate Mediation Program and on the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center’s list of experts, mediators and arbitrators.

From August 1994 until November 1998, Dr. Linck was the Solicitor of Patents and Trademarks at the USPTO, at that time the highest legal position in the Office. More recently, between May 2006 and February 2008, she served as an Administrative Patent Judge on the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s Board of Patent Appeals & Interferences in the Board’s biotechnology practice group. As Solicitor, Dr. Linck was General Counsel to the Commissioner and represented the Office before the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in over 100 appeals and in district court litigation to which the Office was a party.

Before becoming an Administrative Patent Judge, Dr. Linck was Deputy General Counsel, IP & Trade for the Biotechology Industry Organization (BIO); Senior Vice President, Intellectual Property and Regulatory Affairs, and Chief Compliance Officer for Guilford Pharmaceuticals; and a Partner with the intellectual property law firm, Cushman, Darby & Cushman.

Dr. Linck's experience in inter partes matters before the Office began with her role as one of the drafters of the inter partes reexamination legislation that was ultimately enacted in November 1999. Since then, in 2002, she testified before the Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property of the House Judiciary Committee regarding needed improvements in reexamination to make the process more meaningful, including a third party right to appeal to the Federal Circuit. Such a right is now available and has made reexamination a viable, less expensive alternative to litigation. Dr. Linck also has written on the topic, PTO Grants Adjudicated Infringers a "Second Bite at the Apple" in Inter Partes Reexamination, BNA Patent, Trademark & Copyright J. (Oct. 2005).

Dr. Linck received her B.S. from the University of California, Berkeley, M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of California, San Diego, and her J.D., magna cum laude, from the Western New England College School of Law.

She is a co-author of the Bloomberg BNA treatise Post-Grant Patent Practice.