Clients

“Dunlap Codding has always dealt with me in an attentive and courteous manner, providing prompt and informative responses to all of my inquiries….It has been my observation that Dunlap Codding attorneys are patient and helpful in mentoring the University of Oklahoma researchers who have limited experience with intellectual property law and the patent preparation and filing process.

I have had the opportunity to work with the attorneys of Dunlap Codding on more than one dozen utility patent filings resulting from research performed at OU, primarily in the area of electrical engineering over a span of more than fifteen years. The level of professionalism and knowledge of intellectual property law demonstrated by DC has been consistently excellent.”

“A word that would come to mind would be a partner. And sort of a shoulder-to-shoulder relationship. They roll their sleeves up right along with me.”

“Dunlap Codding made the effort to teach us some practical patent law….This customized legal education has also allowed strategic planning related to intellectual property as we consider designing new inventions over the next 3-8 years to really secure and expand our technology. Bottom line, we have obtained broad and useful patents that have been key to securing partnerships with big biotech companies; without such good IP, the companies would not have moved forward.”

“In 2000, I co-founded (together with Paul DeAngelis, whom I recruited to OUHSC in 1995) Hyalose, LLC—a biotechnology company based on intellectual property developed initially at UT and then at OUHSC. Formation of this company was only possible because Dunlap Codding helped to negotiate an unprecedented, historic agreement between OU and UT, which enable my UT technology to be licensed by OU. In addition, Sorocco had to coordinate and lay the ground work for me to meet personally with a “difficult” patent examiner at the USPTO in Washington, D.C.—the outcome was the elimination of objections and a key obstacle to issuing multiple patents related to our hyaluronan synthase technology. As a result of these two actions by Dunlap Codding, Hyalose was able to create a very strong IP position, and thus enter into a significant licensing agreement with an international (Danish) commercial partner (Novozymes, AS) to develop our new recombinant technology for bulk hyaluronan production….The time, effort and expertise provided by Doug Sorocco, Kathryn Hester and others at Dunlap Codding were critically important to this income.

Most importantly throughout the long [patent process], I always felt that the Dunlap Codding personnel worked for me—in the sense that they were completely engaged with me as a partner trying to achieve a common goal. They listened, asked excellent questions about and understood the science, gave good suggestions about strategy and followed up meetings with revised documents, etc., as promised.

[The firm] provided outstanding IP planning and strategy several years ago that resulted in a flurry of patents (11 U.S. patents awarded in 2006) that have been very important to Hyalose and Novozymes. Their input as partners in strategizing how to overcome a technical hurdle to enable broad patent protection was absolutely critical to this successful outcome. This occurred during a period when the “gene-patenting” policies of the USPTO were shifting almost daily, but Sorocco and Hester were aware of what was happening and what “language” changes might be acceptable. They were fantastic partners in this effort.

I was initially surprised to discover how much easier and more efficient it was to meet and work with the OU patent attorneys [Dunlap Codding]…compared to my experiences at [University of Texas Medical Branch]. The service and personal interaction aspects of developing patent applications were just easier here…I quickly realized that this difference was entirely attributable to Dunlap Codding’s commitment to the OU patent portfolio….”