Foley Hoag

Firm overview:

Founded in 1943, Foley Hoag has established a nationally and internationally recognised intellectual property practice. The firm provides integrated patent services from prosecution to litigation, and has represented some high-profile clients in the life sciences industry.

Non-contentious services offered by the team include patent drafting and prosecution; patent portfolio audits; due diligence and opinions; and clearance studies.

In patent litigation, the Foley Hoag team has been involved in major victories in bet-the-company cases and complex Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) litigations under the Hatch-Waxman Act. Its relatively small patent practice punches above its weight, being frequently on the other side of the ‘v’ against many of the leading firms in patent litigation and clinching many significant wins.

One client says they chose Foley for representation in contentious litigation with a dominant competitor, “because they came highly recommended” and have “just been phenomenal”.

Team overview:

Barbara Fiacco co-chairs the Patent Litigation Practice and is widely recognised in rankings nationally. Her practice focuses on the biomedical field; among her clients is Enanta Pharmaceuticals, for which she is lead counsel in its patent infringement suit against Pfizer for the sale of its COVID-19 anti-viral Paxlovid.

Brendan Jones, co-chair of the PTAB Proceedings Practice Group, manages the worldwide prosecution of patent portfolios for a diverse range of clients, as well as representing both patent challengers and owners in post-grant proceedings.

A client says the knowledge and expertise of Donald Ware, a past chair of the IP department, is “just tremendous”. “He has always sourced unique ideas and some of those have been very successful. He's also just a very good person and very good to work with.”

Sarah Burg focuses her practice on representing life sciences companies and research institutions in patent litigation, and has litigated cases concerning technologies around recombinant DNA, monoclonal antibodies, small molecules compounds, medical devices, and more.

In 2025, additions to the firm’s IP practice included a five-partner team from Perkins Coie and K&L Gates. John Schnurer, Louise Lu, Kevin Patariu, and Miguel Bombach joined the firm’s IP Litigation Practice Group and Innovative Technology Sector in San Diego from Perkins Coie. Tom Anderton joined the Chemical, Biotechnology & Pharmaceutical Practice Group and Health Care & Life Sciences Sector in San Francisco from K&L Gates.

Key matters:

Foley Hoag is representing gastrointestinal health company Geneoscopy in a high-stakes patent litigation brought by Exact Sciences, alleging infringement of colorectal cancer screening methods by Geneoscopy’s trademarked ‘ColoSense’ screening test.

Geneoscopy filed for inter partes review following the lawsuit in Delaware. In 2025, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) found one patent asserted by Exact Sciences to be obvious and therefore invalid.

Clients:

Geneoscopy