Experience
Loren Hulse is a partner of the firm who assists life science companies in creating and maintaining valuable patent and trademark portfolios around their key products and areas of research. He has extensive experience in the filing and prosecution of patent and trademark applications in the United States and abroad. As former in-house intellectual property counsel for NPS Pharmaceuticals and Ceramatec, Inc., Loren has managed large domestic and international patent and trademark portfolios, including the patent portfolio surrounding an FDA-approved drug product. His experience includes developing strategy and preparing submissions for opposition proceedings at the European Patent Office to challenge a competitor's patent application and to defend a client's own patent application. His experience with European patent matters includes acting as an advisor for oral hearings during prosecution and opposition phases and directing foreign counsel in obtaining supplementary protection certificates. Loren's practice also includes intellectual property due diligence and counseling clients on freedom-to-operate and patentability matters. Loren also assists companies in managing the intellectual property aspects of agreement-based relationships with major pharmaceutical industry partners, and in the strategic management of their patent portfolios by partnering with and furthering the goals of their internal patent committees.
Loren has extensive technology experience in the life sciences, including small molecule and peptide drugs, methods of treatment, genes, genetic constructs, protein constructs, nucleotide analogs, genetic therapies, RNA-related drug technology and various chemical compositions. Loren has developed patent protection strategies for new solid oxide fuel cell technologies, ionically conductive membrane applications and syngas production techniques. He also has experience in prosecuting patents relating to medical devices such as diagnostic kits, catheters, infusion therapy and cardiac assist devices.
Prior to joining Stoel Rives, Loren was intellectual property counsel for NPS Pharmaceuticals, Inc. in Salt Lake City, Utah from 2006-2007; he was also patent counsel for Ceramatec, Inc. in Salt Lake City from 2005-2006. Loren began his career as a patent attorney at Madson & Metcalf, P.C. in Salt Lake City from 2001-2005.
Representative Work
Patent Prosecution and Portfolio Management
- Managed and prosecuted international patent portfolios surrounding five drug development programs and several drug discovery programs, including two for drugs approved for sale in the U.S. and/or Europe.
- Led a team in opposing a competitor's European patent application, driving significant narrowing of its claims, and led a team in defending a client's patent application being opposed in Europe.
- Regularly conducted interviews with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to secure allowance of pending applications.
- Performed freedom to operate analyses for clients.
- Conducted intellectual property due diligence for a client during licensing negotiations.
Trademark Prosecution and Portfolio Management
- Counseled a biopharmaceutical client on trademark legal and clearance issues and crafted an international trademark filing strategy in a worldwide branding effort for a pharmaceutical product.
- Managed a client's international trademark portfolio, including defense of corporate and product marks informally and in trademark oppositions.
Professional Honors & Activities
- Recognized in Utah Business magazine's "Utah Legal Elite, Intellectual Property," 2007-2009, 2011
- Listed among Rising StarsSM in Mountain States Super Lawyers®, 2008-2010
- Member, Corporate Intellectual Property Management Committee of the Intellectual Property Owners Association 2008-2009
- Member, American Intellectual Property Law Association
Presentations
- Speaker, "Developments in Policy Thinking and Think Tanks," and "Global IP Paradigms in Flux," Metabolic Design 2011, San Diego, California, May 23, 2011
- Co-Presenter, "Built In the Lab: Tips for Laying the Groundwork for Powerful Patents," Stoel Rives LLP, Salt Lake City, Utah, Sept. 23, 2010
Civic Activities
- Co-Chair, Utah Innovation Awards program, 2009
- Member, University of Utah Young Alumni Board, 2006-2009
Education
- S.J. Quinney College of Law, University of Utah, J.D., 2001
S.J. and Jessie E. Quinney Scholarship
William H. Leary Scholar
- University of Utah, B.A., Biology and Russian, 1998
President's Award 1993, 1996-1998
Admissions
- Utah
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
- U.S. Patent & Trademark Office
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