Charles P. Romano, Ph.D.

Senior Patent Agent

Charley has extensive experience in biotech patent preparation and prosecution gained in over 15 years as a USPTO patent agent representing venture-backed start-up companies, multinational corporations, and university clients. He also has extensive experience building patent portfolios for start-up companies and assisting in seed through Series C due diligence analyses of patent estates.

Prior to joining McKee, Voorhees & Sease, he served as a Senior Patent Agent at Thompson Coburn LLP. Prior to that he held scientific leadership positions at Monsanto, Cereon Genomics, and Apath LLC, where he led teams and collaborations directed to the discovery and commercialization of agbiotech and pharmaceutical products. A named inventor on 22 issued U.S. Patents, Charley made key contributions to the Monsanto YieldGard® Rootworm and Genuity™ VT Double PRO™ lepidopteran insect control products.

Charley takes a business-goal oriented and pragmatic approach to preparing and prosecuting patent applications before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as a registered patent agent.

Biotechnology Patents

Academic Research and Technology Transfer
Agritech
Animal Health
Pharma and Nutra
Plant Breeding and Plant-Related Technology

Education

Harvard University, Ph.D., Biochemistry, 1989

University of Massachusetts, B.S., Microbiology, 1983

Selected Patents Drafted and Prosecuted as a Patent Agent

“Low fiber pennycress meal and methods of making” US 10,709,151

“Amyloid protofibril antibodies and methods of use thereof” US 10,035,847

“Microbial fermentation methods and compositions” US 9,845,462

“Encoded nanopore sensor for multiplex nucleic acids detection” US 9,732,379

“Plants with useful traits and related methods” US 9,476,040

“Molecular markers…in glyphosate tolerant soybeans” US 8,921,647

Selected Patents as Named Inventor

“Nucleotide sequences encoding insecticidal proteins” N. Bogdanova; D.R. Corbin; T.M. Malvar; F.J. Perlak; J.K. Roberts; C.P. Romano. U.S. 8,344,207

“Expression of Cry3b Insecticidal Protein In Plants,” C. Romano. U.S. 6,501,009

“Methods for Transforming Plants to Express Cry2Ab. Delta-Endotoxins Targeted to Plastids,” D. Corbin and C. Romano. U.S. 6,489,542

Publications

Romano CP, Robson PR, Smith H, Estelle M, Klee H. Transgene-mediated auxin overproduction in Arabidopsis: hypocotyl elongation phenotype and interactions with the hy6-1 hypocotyl elongation and axr1 auxin-resistant mutants; Plant Mol Biol. 1995 Mar;27(6):1071-83

Romano CP, Cooper ML, Klee HJ. Uncoupling Auxin and Ethylene Effects in Transgenic Tobacco and Arabidopsis Plants; Plant Cell. 1993 Feb;5(2):181-189.

Romano CP, Hein MB, Klee HJ. Inactivation of auxin in tobacco transformed with the indoleacetic acid-lysine synthetase gene of Pseudomonas savastanoi.; Genes Dev. 1991 Mar;5(3):438-46.

Romano CP, Bienz-Tadmor B, Mariani BD, Kafatos FC. Both early and late Drosophila chorion gene promoters confer correct temporal, tissue and sex specificity on a reporter Adh gene; EMBO J. 1988 Mar;7(3):783-90.

Bar & Court Admissions

United States Patent and Trademark Office, 2005

USPTO CALLED TO STEP UP INTERAGENCY COOPERATION

In the immediate wake of the Belcher v. Hospira case where the patent holder made contradictory statements to the USPTO and the FDA regarding prior art, Senators Leahy and Tillis called for “the creation of a smooth, predictable, and regular channel of information from other federal agencies to the Patent Office” in a letter to […]

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COVID-19 VACCINE IP WAIVERS AND PLATFORM PATENTS

The recent announcement by US Trade Representative Katherine Tai that the “US supports the waiver of IP protections on COVID-19 vaccines to help end the pandemic” has led to concern over the potential scope and effect of such waivers. Forced disclosure of trade secrets related to vaccine manufacturing processes has generated the most concern since […]

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Antibody Claim Strategies After the Amgen v. Sanofi Decisions

Monoclonal antibodies (“mAb”) which specifically bind therapeutic targets dominate the biopharmaceutical market with global sales revenues estimated at nearly US$163 billion in 2019. Prior to the 2017, mAb were often protected in the US by broad claims which described the therapeutic target (i.e., the “antigen”) that the mAb could bind since such mAb could be […]

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