Richard C. Pettus

I'll research this attorney's background and practice.

Let me verify the tracked case and PTAB/IPR activity.

One more check on outcomes in his PTAB/Federal Circuit work.

Richard C. Pettus — Patent Litigation Practice Summary

Focus areas. Pettus is a first-chair patent trial lawyer whose practice is concentrated in life sciences and pharmaceutical patent litigation, particularly ANDA/Hatch-Waxman and 505(b)(2) Paragraph IV actions, with a secondary medical device and technology docket. Greenberg Traurig's bio says he has handled 100-plus patent, trademark and trade secret matters spanning pharmaceuticals, medical devices, computer software and hardware, semiconductors, polymers, energy/industrial equipment, fiber optics, chemical processes and consumer products. He holds a mechanical engineering degree and worked as an engineer before law school, which underpins a mechanical/electrochemical component to the practice (he has defended medical valve, dialysis, stent, spinal implant and industrial pump/packaging cases and asserted semiconductor and document-scanning patents). The tracked matter here — Neurelis, Inc. v. Amneal Pharmaceuticals LLC (D. Del., Valtoco® diazepam nasal spray, Judge Noreika) — is squarely in his core Hatch-Waxman lane.

Side preference. Tracked appearances show 0 plaintiff-side and 2 defendant-side, consisting of Neurelis v. Amneal for defendant Amneal (once as outside counsel for Greenberg Traurig, once on his pro hac vice admission) — i.e., a single defense engagement in the D. Del. ANDA litigation consolidated under C.A. No. 24-562-MN. That is a thin sample, and it is not representative of the broader record: he has been lead or trial counsel for both brand owners enforcing patents (GSK, Sanofi, Baxter Healthcare, Boehringer-Ingelheim, Duramed/Teva) and generic/biosimilar challengers (Teva, Actavis, Dr. Reddy's, Glenmark, Alembic, Emcure, B. Braun), plus patentees in non-pharma cases (Skillsurvey, Electrical Prefab Systems, Qimonda, CertainTeed, FoldPak). Net: a genuinely two-sided practice, defense-leaning in his recent and tracked matters.

Firm context. Pettus is a Shareholder in Greenberg Traurig's New York office (Intellectual Property & Technology / Life Sciences & Medical Technology groups), where he has been since January 2013, joining from King & Spalding together with Jon Ball and others. Before King & Spalding (2007–2013) he was a partner at McDermott Will & Emery, and earlier practiced at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius and the patent boutique Hopgood, Calimafde, Kalil & Judlowe. He is not in-house.

Notable matters. Beyond the Neurelis/Amneal defense, verifiable highlights include: lead trial counsel for Teva in the VELPHORO® iron oxy-hydroxide Hatch-Waxman bench trial in D. Del. before Judge Noreika; lead counsel for Duramed/Teva in the extended-regimen oral contraceptive action (D.N.J.); trial counsel for GSK in the ZOFRAN® ANDA case (D. Del., resolved after bench trial and Federal Circuit appeal); defense of B. Braun in CareFusion 303 v. B. Braun Medical (C.D. Cal.), where the case was dismissed with prejudice two days before trial as an evidentiary sanction and a laches ruling cut exposure by roughly 90–95%; and a defense verdict for B. Braun after a five-day jury trial in Zohmann v. B. Braun (E.D. Pa.). As an FDA-side note, he also represented Vifor in Biofer S.p.A. v. Vifor (International) AG (E.D.N.Y.).

PTAB / IPR. He does appear before the PTAB. He was lead counsel (registered practitioner) for the Electronic Frontier Foundation as petitioner in EFF v. Personal Audio, LLC, IPR2014-00070, which cancelled claims 31–35 of the "podcasting patent" (U.S. 8,112,504); the Federal Circuit affirmed in 2017 and certiorari was denied in 2018. He was also named as backup counsel for petitioner Vifor in Vifor (International) AG v. Biofer S.p.A., IPR2022-01608, in parallel with the related district court case. His PTAB footprint is real but not the centerpiece of the practice, and this is not a high-volume IPR practice in the public record.

Bar / education. Admitted in New York (1997); registered to practice before the USPTO (Reg. No. 45,935); admitted to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. B.S.M.E., cum laude, Manhattan College; J.D., Fordham University School of Law. He has been recognized as an LMG Life Sciences "Life Science Star" for General Patent Litigation and Hatch-Waxman litigation and listed in IAM Patent 1000 (Litigation).

Caveats: the two tracked case entries appear to be duplicative records of the same D. Del. ANDA action, so the "2 defendant-side appearances" figure overstates the number of distinct matters. Firm-website matter descriptions are self-reported and include representations handled at prior firms (denoted with a "°" on his bio); outcomes are stated as reported by the firm and have not been independently verified in every instance.