Thomas W. Banks
Partner
Tom Banks has extensive experience in all aspects of patent law, including patent and trade secret litigation, patent counseling, and patent preparation and prosecution. His practice focuses on patent litigation in the pharmaceutical and chemistry areas, but he has also handled cases dealing with biotechnology, medical devices, and trade secrets.
Since joining Finnegan in 1987, Mr. Banks has taken an active role in more than 20 U.S. district court patent infringement cases, three appeals, and one U.S. International Trade Commission investigation. Mr. Banks has also handled two cases in the Massachusetts state courts, and one patent case in South Korea. Specific technologies at issue in these cases have been pharmaceutical vaccines and drugs, drug delivery, polymers, genetics, diagnostics, protease inhibitors, chemical fibers, glass, light emitting diodes, competent cells, carbon dioxide cleaning, surgical gowns, organic chemistry, packaging, and synthetic gemstones.
Mr. Banks has also handled over a dozen due diligence investigations, predominantly in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology areas, and numerous pre-litigation investigations, mostly in the chemical arts.
Mr. Banks began his career in the firm’s Washington, D.C., office. He then moved to the Bay Area to help open Finnegan’s Palo Alto, Calif., office. In 2001, he helped the firm open its Cambridge, Mass., office, where he served as the managing partner from 2001 to 2010.
Mr. Banks has lectured and written on various aspects of patent law at in-house and outside seminars.
Highlights
- Represented American Cyanamid Corp. in a successful defense of its HIBTiter vaccine against a charge of patent infringement in S.D. New York and at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
- Successfully defended Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. in E.D. Tennessee against a charge of patent infringement levied against its processes for making polyethylene terephthalate.
- Obtained a favorable settlement for Hercules, Inc. in its enforcement of a claim of patent infringement in N.D. Georgia.
- Successfully enforced a trade secret misappropriation claim for ALZA Corp. after one of its key scientists was hired by a competitor.
- Obtained dismissal of a claim of patent infringement on behalf of Applied Biosystems.
- Obtained favorable settlement of a claim of breach of contract and unfair business practices for individuals against a large, multinational corporation.
- Former project engineer for E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Co., 1978-1983.
- Registered professional engineer in the state of Michigan.
Professional Recognition
- Listed in Massachusetts Super Lawyers, 2005-2006.
Professional Activities
- District of Columbia Bar Association
- Federal Circuit Bar Association
- American Bar Association
- American Intellectual Property Law Association
- American Chemical Society
- Boston Bar
- Boston Patent Law Association
- Massachusetts Biotechnology Council
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