Simon Roberts and Jason Leonard have joined the New York office of Hogan Lovells as partners in the firm’s intellectual property, media and technology practice. Previously, they were partners at Venable and Fitzpatrick, Cella, Harper & Scinto.

Roberts is a skilled patent litigator with a background in chemistry. He has extensive knowledge and experience in the realm of the Hatch-Waxman litigations, and is highly regarded for his work in the chemical and ethical pharmaceutical industry. In addition to his extensive litigation practice before the federal courts, Roberts regularly represents clients before the United States Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) in contested and non-contested proceedings. He also has the rare distinction of being permitted to present oral argument before the Patent Reexamination Board (PRB) of China’s Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) in Beijing resulting in the Board upholding the patentability of the patent covering one of the world’s most prescribed HIV medication.

Leonard has experience in all aspects of intellectual property law, with a focus on complex pharmaceutical patent litigation around new drug compounds, enantiomers, polymorphs, drug formulations, and methods of use. He has extensive experience litigating pharmaceutical patents covering oncology drugs, antifungal agents, and oral contraceptives. Before practicing law, Leonard spent six years as a solid-state and analytical chemist at Pfizer. His work included development of analytical methods for drug formulations and synthesis of novel polymorphs and salts of pharmaceutical compounds. He also focused on conducting investigations of complex scientific problems encountered during drug development.