Skip Navigation LinksServices > Intellectual Property > Agriculture & Life Sciences


Agriculture & Life Sciences

  • OVERVIEW
  • PROFESSIONALS
Today’s agriculture industry is a complex business requiring a diverse set of skills. Those involved with agricultural-related industries must deal with a complicated set of laws and regulations, including those regulating product distribution (especially via railway and barge), the Plant Variety Protection Act (PVPA), the Federal Insecticide Fungicide & Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), patent law, commercial law and product liability law. With the increasing importance of biotechnology and biofuel to industrialized nations, even the products used and produced by today’s agriculture companies have become more complex.

Members of our Agriculture and Life Sciences team have many years of experience handling life sciences and agricultural-related IP matters and can deliver nearly any legal service our clients may require. This includes licensing, trademark, technology transfer, patent-related matters, environmental matters (including FIFRA), commercial finance, product distribution and product liability. Our litigators are highly experienced in handling technology-related disputes.

We work extensively with clients ranging from biotech startups to major pharmaceutical, medical device and medical research companies, as well as universities, handling their patent and trademark issues, technology transfer and licensing. We understand the science behind their work and the industries in which they operate. Our attorneys, scientific advisers and patent agents, many with advanced degrees, have the experience, educational background and understanding to guide those in highly technical industries through this legal thicket. We offer clients a single point of contact for their legal needs, letting them focus on their work while we “take care of the legal.”

In addition to standard intellectual property services, we also offer representation related to government regulatory counsel, government contracts, transactional, corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, labor and employment, health care, product liability, real estate and tax law.

Finally, we have significant experience in serving clients in all areas of the life sciences, chemical and pharmaceutical industries. We have extensive experience in working with:

• Antibacterial compounds
• Bioinformatics
• Chemical and pharmaceutical compounds
• Chemical processed technology
• Diagnostic assays and kits
• DNA transformation methods and products
• Drug delivery systems
• Food processes
• Genetic and immunochemical diagnostics
• Genomics
• Hormonal, immunochemical and genetic therapies
• Human and plant growth factors
• Human and plant tissue culture media and methods
• Marker-assisted Breeding
• Medical devices and methods
• Monoclonal antibodies
• Recombinant DNA technology
• siRNA
• Stem Cells
• Transgenic plants and animals
• Viral vector applications

Steven M. Ritchey

314.552.6232
  • Representative Corporations
  • Apath
  • Fermalogic
  • ICL Performance Products
  • Laser Band
  • Lybradyn
  • Monsanto
  • Nestle Purina Petcare
  • Sigma-Aldrich
  • Tate & Lyle
  • Representative Universities
  • Florida State University
  • Rockefeller University 
  • Saint Louis University
  • Southern Illinois University-Carbondale
  • University of Missouri
  • University of Nebraska
  • University of Tennessee
  • Washington University in St. Louis

US Patents
Method and apparatus for automated detection of target structures from medical images using a 3D morphological matching algorithmt, United States Patent 7,949,169 Bae , et al. May 24, 2011 (full description).
Methods and agents for preparing .sup.18F-radiolabeled fluorinating agents, United States Patent 7,744,851 DiMagno , et al. June 29, 2010 (full description)..
Transgenic plants,  United States Patent 7,888,557 Sun , et al. February 15, 2011 (full description).
Method and associated system for the interventional treatment of atrial fibrillation, United States Patent 7,918,847 Damiano, Jr. , et al. April 5, 2011 (full description).
Method for processing tissue samples in preparation for histological examination, United States Patent 7,888,132 McCormick February 15, 2011, (full description).\
Kits for detection of segmented negative strand RNA viruses, United States Patent 7,807,345 Pekosz , et al. October 5, 2010 (full description).
Infectious, chimeric hepatitis C virus, methods of producing the same and methods of use thereof, United States Patent 7,674,612 Rice , et al. March 9, 2010 (full description).
Soybean seed and oil compositions and methods of making same, 8. United States Patent 7,943,818 Fillatti , et al. May 17, 2011 (full description).
Method and apparatus for performing similarity searching on a data stream with respect to a query string, United States Patent 7,917,299 Buhler , et al. March 29, 2011 (full description).