Mary E. Bak has been a partner of Howson & Howson LLP since 1988. For seven years prior to joining the firm, Ms. Bak was an intellectual property attorney with law firms in Chicago and New York City and also served as an in-house patent counsel with a small biotechnology company in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Mary’s practice involves national and international prosecution and appellate representation of clients in such diverse fields as the discovery and pharmaceutical uses of novel and modified genes and proteins; peptide chemistries and modification; gene therapy compositions and methods; peptide and protein-based therapies for cancer and viral diseases; antibody-based therapies for cancer and viral diseases; processes and compositions for immunological and hematological cell flow cytometric analyses; industrial chemistries including polymeric coatings and metal-working formulations among many others.
Ms. Bak has also represented corporate clients in transactional matters such as license negotiations and agreements, confidentiality agreements, as well as legal opinions on the validity and infringement of patents and freedom-to-operate in various fields. In addition to her patent practice, Ms. Bak has counseled clients in matters involving trademarks, copyrights, and unfair competition, both foreign and domestic.
Admitted
Ms. Bak is admitted to practice before the Pennsylvania and New York bars, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and the Supreme Court of the United States. She has been registered before the United States Patent and Trademark Office since 1984.
Education and Associations
Mary received her Juris Doctor degree from Villanova University School of Law in 1981. This was preceded by a B.S., Microbiology degree from the University of Notre Dame in 1978. She is a member of the Philadelphia Intellectual Property Law Association, the American Intellectual Property Law Association and the Licensing Executives Society. She has spoken on intellectual property matters at a seminar for patent examiners at the United States Patent and Trademark Office, on a panel for LES, and has conducted seminars for several non-profit organizations.
Practice/Focus Areas
Ms. Bak’s practice has been exclusively in the field of Intellectual Property transactions, with her particular areas of expertise in microbiology, biotechnology and chemistry patent prosecution and counseling in university, non-profit and for-profit settings.
