Alice O. Martin, Ph.D.

In addition to her past patent law practice, Alice was a geneticist by training. Her immediate understanding of science and cutting-edge invention is further supported by her creativity in applying the law to pioneering innovation. As a result, Alice’s experience spanned a wide range of industries, including biotechnology, agriculture and plants, animals, medical compositions and devices, laboratory equipment, genetics, treatments and assays for various diseases, surgical techniques, tissue culture methods and equipment.

Alice offered significant experience in the specialized area of the biotechnology of plants. Over the course of her career, she has obtained many U.S. and foreign utility patents for major corporations. Notably, Alice obtained the first fertile transgenic corn plant patent, which then involved an interference proceeding that the client won.

Alice was familiar with representation for utility patents on plants and provisions under the Plant Patent Act and the Plant Variety Protection Act. Alice has also prosecuted patents involving many types of trees, corn and rice. She has advised on patents involving U.S., Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) and foreign countries for various plants and plant techniques for universities and other organizations. She was familiar with wheat, watermelon and the like.

Prior to practicing law, Alice worked as a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Northwestern University Medical School, as well as a certified Medical Geneticist and Cytogenetics Laboratory director at Northwestern Memorial Hospitals. She was the principal investigator on many NIH and NCI research grants. Her academic and research experience provides insight and understanding of the inventions to be protected by universities.

She has written more than 100 articles for scientific and legal publications and delivered more than 50 presentations nationally and internationally on scientific and legal issues.