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Courtenay C. Brinckerhoff

Partner

Courtenay C. Brinckerhoff

Partner

Courtenay Brinckerhoff is an intellectual property lawyer, assisting international clients with all aspects of obtaining, defending, evaluating, licensing, and enforcing patents; and conducting freedom-to-operate and due diligence investigations. She is a partner and vice chair of the firm鈥檚 Intellectual Property Department, as well as the editor and primary author for Foley鈥檚聽PharmaPatentsBlog.com, where she analyzes evolving patent office practices and precedential court decisions on emerging legal issues.

For more than 25 years, Courtenay has represented clients in diverse industries before the U.S. Patent Office, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. She has successfully represented clients in complex patent matters, including four-party interference,聽Inter partes聽Reexaminations,聽Inter partes聽Reviews, and ANDA litigation.

Courtenay works with clients across the chemical and biotechnology industries, including on innovations for pharmaceuticals and drug-device products, human and animal food products and nutraceuticals, and industrial technologies. Clients trust Courtenay to secure critical intellectual patent rights, including patents intended for listing in the Orange Book or eligible for listing in the Purple Book.

She has particular experience with transdermal pharmaceutical products (patches, gels, and liquids), oral dosage forms (including controlled/extended-release formulations), enzyme-based technologies, microbial technologies, diagnostic and therapeutic antibodies, active and passive immunization therapies, and personalized medicine, as well as with industrial films, carbon nanotube technologies, biofuels, and carbon capture technologies.

Courtenay has served as vice chair of the firm鈥檚 Chemical, Biotechnology & Pharmaceutical Practice and is an active member of the firm鈥檚 PTAB Trials Practice and Life Sciences Industry Team.

Prior to joining Foley as an associate, Courtenay clerked for the Honorable Alvin Anthony Schall on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Prior to her clerkship, she worked at Foley as a patent agent and law clerk.

Awards and Recognition

  • Stand-out Lawyer, Thomson Reuters (2025-2026)
  • The Best Lawyers in America漏, Patent Law (2021-2024) and Biotechnology and Life Sciences Practice (2023-2024)
  • IP Distinguished Alumni Award from George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School (April 2017)
  • JD Supra聽Readers鈥 Choice Top Author (2017-2021) in the categories of pharmaceutical industry and patents for her work on the聽笔丑补谤尘补笔补迟别苍迟蝉听blog
  • IAM Patent 1000 – The World鈥檚 Leading Patent Practitioners, patent prosecution (2014-2016, 2020-2021, 2024-2025)
  • Top Women in IP, Managing IP聽(2015)
  • IP Star, Managing IP聽(2015)

Thought Leadership

Courtenay writes and speaks on topics important to clients in chemical, biotechnological, pharmaceutical, food, and personalized medicine industries. She has been an invited speaker at the AIPLA Annual Meeting, the FDLI Annual Meeting, the Intellectual Property Owner’s Association annual meeting, the PTAB Bar Association annual meeting, and the annual Advanced Patent Law Institute presented by the University of Texas School of Law, the United States Patent and Trademark Office, and George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School.

Courtenay currently serves as a Vice Chair of the Intellectual Property Owner’s Association Patent Office Practice Committee and as a Vice Chair of the Appeals to the PTAB Committee of the PTAB Bar Association.

Courtenay has been following U.S. patent reform since its inception, and she and other Foley colleagues co-authored the treatise,聽America Invents Act: Law & Analysis聽(Wolters Kluwer 2012). The interface between patent law and FDA law is another area of interest, and she has written and spoken on issues including patent term extension, the scope of the Hatch-Waxman 鈥渟afe harbor,鈥 the ANDA litigation framework, and the biosimilars BPCIA framework.

 

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April 9, 2026 PharmaPatents

USPTO to Take a Piercing Look at National Stage Applications

USPTO鈥檚 PIER pilot program adds a new 鈥渃onfirm鈥憈o鈥憄roceed鈥 step for selected U.S. national stage applications. The PIER program may increase costs, cause delays, and reduce patent term adjustment (PTA). The USPTO may benefit by reducing its workload without refunding examination fees.
April 2, 2026 PTAB Trial Insights

USPTO Invites Patent Owner Input To Stem Tide Of Reexamination Proceedings

After issuing an April Fool鈥檚 Day press release announcing an imagined 鈥淎I-assisted evaluator for patent eligibility determinations,鈥 the USPTO issued another press release on April 1, 2026, that stakeholders need to take seriously. The real notice relates to ex parte reexamination proceedings, and announced a new process permitting patent owners to weigh in before the USPTO decides whether to proceed with reexamination.
A close-up of a worn, oval-shaped label showing the word 鈥淧ATENTED鈥 in large letters and a list of dates below it鈥攁n artifact that could intrigue chicago lawyers or those seeking litigation support.
January 8, 2026 Blogs

Ex Parte PTAB Decisions Rein In Obviousness-Type Double Patenting Rejections

Current USPTO leadership has not proposed new rules that would change how the Examining Corps applies the doctrine, but ex parte decisions by the USPTO Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) seem to reflect a willingness to hold examiners to the current state of the law.
October 24, 2025 PharmaPatents

Act Fast For (Nearly) Free Expedited Examination

The USPTO announced a new pilot program designed to help it efficiently reduce the backlog of unexamined patent applications. The...
October 21, 2025 PTAB Trial Insights

USPTO Director Takes Control of IPR and PGR Institution Decisions

In what some are perceiving as the second blow of a one-two punch against patent trial proceedings conducted at the U.S. Patent and...
October 16, 2025 IP Litigation Current

USPTO Issues Proposed Rulemaking On Discretionary Denials of IPR Proceedings

In the first proposed rulemaking issued under Director Squires, the USPTO proposes to modify the rules of practice relating to...