Overview
Adam C. LaRock is a director in Sterne Kessler’s Trial & Appellate Practice Group. Adam is an experienced patent litigator with a practice focused on complex patent litigation and strategic counseling in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.
As a seasoned litigator, Adam has extensive experience representing large, mid-size, and small innovator, generic, and biosimilar clients in high-value patent matters related to the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation (BPCIA) Act and the Hatch-Waxman Act. Adam also represents clients in brand vs. brand pharmaceutical patent litigation, and regularly represents clients in proceedings before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board and Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Adam has led teams in over thirty five patent cases for both innovator and generic drug clients and has deep experience in all phases of a dispute, from pre-litigation strategy through trial, appeal, and/or settlement.
In addition, Adam assists clients with strategic counseling, freedom-to-operate analyses, and negotiating a wide variety of deals such as settlement agreements, including negotiating launch triggers and authorized generic terms, patent licenses, royalty arrangements, and acquisitions. Whether in litigation or at the negotiating table, Adam utilizes his understanding of both the IP and regulatory issues in the pharmaceutical industry and business dynamics to help his clients achieve their business goals.
Adam is also a contributing author of Pre-ANDA Litigation: Strategies and Tactics for Developing a Drug Product and Patent Portfolio, Third Edition, published by the American Bar Association in 2022.
Adam received his B.S. in chemistry from Clarkson University with Great Distinction, and his J.D. from the University of New Hampshire School of Law, Franklin Pierce Center for Intellectual Property (formerly Franklin Pierce Law Center). During law school, Adam served for two years as an articles editor for IDEA: The Intellectual Property Law Review. He also interned at the Merrimack County Superior Court as a law clerk for Hon. Carol Ann Conboy, and at the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office.
Representative Matters
- Represented generic pharmaceutical company in Hatch-Waxman case concerning platelet-aggregation inhibitor.
- Represented generic pharmaceutical company in Hatch-Waxman case concerning laxative formulation.
- Represented brand pharmaceutical company in multiple Hatch-Waxman cases and IPR proceeding concerning combination allergy drug.
- Represented electronics company in an appeal from IPR proceeding concerning near-field communication devices.
- Represented generic pharmaceutical company in Hatch-Waxman case concerning an enzyme inhibitor used to treat COPD.
- Represented generic pharmaceutical company in Hatch-Waxman case concerning leading proton-pump inhibitor.
- Represented generic pharmaceutical company in Hatch-Waxman case concerning leading antipsychotic drug.
- Represented utility services company in district-court litigation concerning stray-voltage-detection-apparatus patents and also in an appeal from IPR proceeding.
- Represented biotechnology company in district court litigation concerning diagnostic gene testing patents.
- Represented generic pharmaceutical company in Hatch-Waxman case concerning antibacterial drug.
- Represented brand pharmaceutical company and university in multiple Hatch-Waxman cases concerning nucleoside analog reverse transcriptase inhibitor used to treat HIV infection.
Education
- J.D., University of New Hampshire Franklin Pierce School of Law
- B.S., Chemistry, Clarkson University, with Great Distinction