Professional Experience

Robert H. Fischer is Chairman of the firm’s Licensing and Transactions Practice Group.

He has been practicing patent and other intellectual property litigation for over twenty-five years in a wide variety of technological fields, including computers, semiconductors and biotechnology.  He also has an extensive practice in licensing, opinion work and counseling, in complex interferences and in procuring patent protection in software, electronics and other fields.  Mr. Fischer has represented clients in connection with the intellectual property aspects of major corporate transactions, including joint venture formations, refinancings and sales of businesses.

Mr. Fischer currently serves as Chair of the New York Intellectual Property Law Association Financial Industry Committee. Mr. Fischer has also provided legal assistance to Voices of September 11^th, an organization providing support in response to the 9/11 attacks and advocacy for public policy reform pertaining to terrorism.

Representative litigations in which Mr. Fischer has acted on behalf of the firm’s clients include the following:

• DataTreasury Corp. v. Wells Fargo & Company, et al. (E.D. Texas). Federal court infringement action involving patents asserted against check processing techniques.
  
  
• Amgen Inc. v. Human Genome Sciences, Inc. Patent Office interference involving TSLP receptor.
  
  
• Kargo Global, Inc. v. Advance Magazine Publishers, Inc. (S.D.N.Y.).  Federal court trademark infringement action involving Condé Nast’s Cargo Magazine.
  
  
• Helmholtz-Zentrum Fur Infektionsforschung Gmbh., exclusive licensor for Bristol-Myers Squibb  v. Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research Patent Office interference involving epothilone C and epothilone D.
  
  
• Brasseler USA Dental, LLC v. Discus Dental, Inc. (C.D. Cal.). Federal court false advertising case involving comparative ads for diamond dental burs (small drills used in dentistry).
  
  
• Datamize, Inc. v. Fidelity Brokerage Services, et al., (E.D. Texas). Federal court infringement action involving patent asserted against financial industry trading software.
  
  
• Mold-Masters Ltd. v. Husky Injection Molding Systems Ltd. (N.D. Ill.). Federal court infringement action involving patent asserted against industrial plastic injection equipment.
  
  
• Techcapital Corp. et al. v. Amoco Corp. (S.D.N.Y.). Breach of license agreements dispute (three in issue) involving ethanol production technology, arbitrated under the auspices of the American Arbitration Association and confirmed in related federal court proceeding.
  
  
• Portel Data Services, Inc. v. Intelidata Corp. (E.D. Va.). Federal court infringement action involving patent asserted against desktop telephones.
  
  
• Loral Fairchild Corp. v. Matsushita Electric, et al. (E.D.N.Y.). Federal court infringement action involving patents asserted against manufacturers and customers for semiconductor charge coupled device chips.
  
  

Mr. Fischer was also counsel of record for the American Intellectual Property Law Association (Amicus Curiae) before the U.S. Supreme Court in Pfaff v. Wells Electronics, Inc.

Prior to going to law school, Mr. Fischer was an engineer at the General Electric Company, Sunnyvale, California, where he was involved in the design of liquid metal fast breeder nuclear reactors.

Awards and Recognition

Mr. Fischer is listed in Legal 500 2008 and 2009 for Patent litigation: full coverage and Patent prosecution: utility and design. He is also listed in Who's Who Legal: The International Who's Who of Business Lawyers.

For information on the selection process, see:

Legal 500

Education

J.D., University of California, Berkeley, 1979, editor, California Law Review, Order of the Coif
Master's in Engineering, Stanford University, 1974
B.S. Engineering, Cooper Union, 1973, Tau Beta Pi (national engineering honor society)

Bar Admissions

State of New York, 1980; U.S. Supreme Court; U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit; U.S. District Courts of the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York; U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

Professional Activities

American Bar Association; American Intellectual Property Law Association; New York Intellectual Property Law Association

Additional Publications

"The Use of Reexamination as a Litigation Tactic," presented at the American Intellectual Property Association Spring Meeting, May 2007

"AT&T Corp. v. Microsoft Corp: U.S. Patent Laws Construed to Cover Extra-Territorial Manufacturing", presentation given at the 22nd Annual Joint Patent Practice Continuing Legal Education Seminar, May 3, 2006

"Process Patents and Enforcement With an Eye on Non-Disclosure of Trade Secrets," presented at the American Intellectual Property Association Spring Meeting, May 13-15, 2004

"Is It Good Lawyering to Write Bad Claims?," paper presented at the ABA IPL 16th Annual Spring CLE Program, April 4, 2001, and at the Florida Intellectual Property Law Association, May 16, 2002

"Solving the Patent Lawyer's Dilemma: Tips for Drafting Clear Yet Broad Claims," talk given to Patent Lawyer's Club of Washington, April 3, 2001