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By Jennifer Wilck Photograph Courtesy Joshua Hodge Photography
With New Jersey’s economy based on ideas and know-how, intellectual property (IP) and patent laws are essential elements of business here. While IP issues are generally handled by federal courts, New Jersey does have unique IP needs.
“New Jersey historically is a very important intellectual property state when you think of the most important inventors,” says Peter Nussbaum, co-chair of Wolff & Samson’s IP Practice. As he points out, Thomas Edison did most of his inventing in New Jersey, with his patents derived in West Orange.
“In a place like New Jersey, the chances of what you’re going to come up with as a new business plan are going to be ideas, as opposed to a specific finding of raw material, and that’s where it becomes so important,” says Marc Haefner, partner at Connell Foley in Roseland. “If you’re manufacturing pharmaceuticals, it’s a cause for grave concern that your ideas be patented and protected as much as possible.”
In order for New Jersey to attract new business, the state must understand the importance of funding research and development (R&D), and to protect IP. “Companies that are dependent on IP, for funding and ultimate success, bring to New Jersey more jobs and higher paying professional jobs than companies that are not reliant on IP,” says Ira A. Rosenberg, chair of the Corporate Practice Group and the Life Sciences Group at Sills Cummins in Newark. “It’s in New Jersey’s interest to do all that it can to attract those high-paying jobs.”
Companies make money by protecting their research and development. “There are a lot of New Jersey companies that invest heavily in R&D,” says Jeffrey Weinick, co-chair of Wolff & Samson’s IP Practice in West Orange. “That allows them to recoup that investment. For pharmaceuticals in particular, exclusivity in the market for a number of years is important. Without protection, companies wouldn’t invest so heavily and couldn’t bring new products to market.”
Companies also won’t get funding. “If a company doesn’t have a protectable IP estate, they’re not going to get funded, because there’s no real barrier to entry from copycats,” says Rosenberg. “It’s the difference in pricing of proprietary drugs versus generic drugs. If they can copy the drug the day after it becomes available, the pharmaceutical industry would be without funds for R&D.”
Recognizing the importance of IP to New Jersey companies, Wolff & Samson recently acquired the patent law boutique firm of Weinick & Associates. The merger increases the IP practice group’s attorneys to 12. One of the firm’s clients is Emabond Solutions, LLC, located in Norwood. “We provide a proprietary welding technology to the plastics industry,” says Steve Chookazian, general manager, global sales division. “As a small company, especially one that offers unique solutions, we’re concerned with someone knocking off our technology and the challenges of policing that.”
As such, Emabond Solutions tries to do most of its protecting and policing through its customers, explains Drew P. LaMarca, manager, operations and technology division. “They’re utilizing our technology, so they’re aware of their competitive pressures out there,” he says. “When they see something, they let us know.”
One way the state can attract companies and increase R&D is to fund state universities. “IP should be recognized as the end product of scientific and technological efforts and innovation,” says Rosenberg. “That comes from universities and private companies. There’s an important role that the universities can and should play in New Jersey with Rutgers, NJIT [New Jersey Institute of Technology] and Princeton, that is the predecessor to IP. It’s what enables it.”
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