Lawrence P. Cogswell Ph.D.

Larry has over 17 years of experience advising clients, including multinational companies, startups, academic institutions, and public and private companies, on diverse legal needs, including intellectual property litigation, diligence, licensing, agreements, and patent prosecution.

Elected a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and a Fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America, he provides clients with strategic legal guidance in support of business goals, including by interfacing with C-Suite executives and serving as external General Counsel.

Larry is a former judicial clerk to the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and a Yale Law School graduate. He is also a former Ph.D. scientist with a diverse technical and scientific background, earning degrees in chemistry and biophysics from Harvard University.

As an IP litigator, Larry represents clients in patent, copyright, trademark, and trade secret cases. Clients rely on Larry’s integrated understanding of the legal and technical aspects of the case, which enables a thorough vetting of the issues, cost-effective analysis, and delivery of solid, practical advice. Over the years, Larry has handled many complex, high-stakes patent disputes. In some of these cases, the parties have asserted numerous patents against each other or started parallel proceedings in other courts or administrative agencies, e.g., ex parte reexaminations or Inter Partes Review (“IPR”) proceedings at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”). Larry frequently appears before the federal district courts, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and the Patent Trial and Appeals Board (PTAB), a specialized tribunal within the USPTO that handles Inter Partes Reviews (“IPRs”), Post Grant Reviews (“PGRs”) and Covered Business Method proceedings (“CBMs”). Larry’s practice also includes Section 337 Proceedings before the United States International Trade Commission (ITC) and trademark oppositions before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB).

Larry counsels clients across a range of technologies, including pharmaceuticals (ANDA applicants and patent owners in Hatch-Waxman litigation), electronics and telecommunications, small molecule chemistry, biologics, biotechnology, software, antibodies, integrated circuits, clean energy, battery and energy storage technologies, light-emitting diodes, global positioning systems, medical devices, biosensors, banking systems, automotive technologies, contact lenses, and mechanical devices. Larry also handles IP due diligence for financial and operating companies that are considering transactions involving IP assets relating to these areas.

Larry is also a seasoned patent prosecutor, representing major universities and corporate clients in obtaining patent rights, managing portfolios, and defending patents in ex parte reexamination proceedings. Larry prosecutes across disciplines with a focus on the chemical, pharmaceutical, biologic, healthcare, medical device, diagnostic, and software sectors, and the intersections between them, e.g., clean energy and the digital health space. Larry brings a strategic perspective to his prosecution work, counseling clients on maximizing return on investment and prosecuting with the ultimate business goal in mind, whether it is licensing, enforcement, attracting capital, or bolstering a defensive portfolio. Larry also advises clients on open source software and OpenChain compliance, open source patent issues, and developing and implementing corporate policies on the use of open source software.

A Ph.D. scientist, Larry was trained at Harvard with a grant from the National Science Foundation, where he developed a multidisciplinary scientific background. For his doctoral work in biophysics, Larry focused on methods spanning the fields of pharmaceuticals, computer modeling and software, synthetic organic chemistry, protein structure, structure-activity relationships, lead optimization, protein-ligand interactions, analytical chemistry, drug development, biophysical chemistry, molecular modeling, fluorescence spectroscopy, and chemical kinetics. For his master’s degree in chemistry, Larry focused on inorganic and bioinorganic syntheses and methods, including enzyme mimetics, transition metal complexes, organometallic chemistry, coordination chemistry, spectroscopy, crystal structure, inorganic synthesis and reactions of air and moisture sensitive molybdenum and tungsten compounds. Larry’s undergraduate research in chemistry focused on the bioinorganic chemistry of iron.

Drawing on his experience in both litigation and prosecution, combined with his extensive technical background, Larry devotes a substantial portion of his practice to counseling clients on important business matters and strategies. These matters arise throughout the lifecycle of a business and include:

• understanding and managing IP-related risks
• merger and acquisition (M&A) due diligence
• portfolio evaluation for potential investors
• IP audits
• freedom to operate analysis
• portfolio management and optimization
• licensing deals
• agreements
• noninfringement and invalidity opinions
• competitive IP intelligence

As external general counsel, he draws upon his experience as a litigator, scientist, transactional lawyer, and IP attorney, maintaining an awareness of the business and regulatory environment in which the company operates.

In 2023, Larry received distinction in The Best Lawyers in America® for his patent law and IP litigation expertise. Since 2022, Larry was individually recognized by IAM Patent 1000: The World’s Leading Patent Professionals in the Bronze category for his expertise in patent litigation. Larry is a member of the Firm’s Management Committee. Since 2017, Larry has been named to Super Lawyers, which is a rating of outstanding lawyers who have attained a high-degree of peer recognition and professional achievement. In 2023, Larry was individually ranked in Patexia’s 2023 PTAB Intelligence Report.