James V. Suggs - Lawyer in Chicago, IL

James V. Suggs is a partner at McDonnell Boehnen Hulbert & Berghoff LLP and chairs the company's Chemical Practice Group. He is dedicated to patent law and leverages his extensive technical experience in chemistry, polymers, materials science, pharmaceuticals, optics, photonics, semiconductors and related technologies.  He deals with all aspects of patent law, with a particular focus on patent procurement, strategic counseling, free operation and due diligence opinions.  He also has an active inter-partes review practice.  

Suggs's litigation experience includes advocacy in federal district courts, appellate practice, and forums such as the International Trade Commission, spanning a variety of technologies including pharmaceuticals (ANDA litigation), medical devices, circuit boards, and optical-based chemical sensors.  He has experience with all kinds of clients, from large multinationals to science-based startups and academic research institutions. 

Suggs was previously a patent attorney in the Intellectual property division of Corning Incorporated, preparing and prosecuting patent applications for polymer and organic chemistry, glass, ceramics, photonics and fiber optic technology.

Prior to turning to patent law, he was a senior scientist in Corning's science and technology division, developing device architecture and materials for polymer and liquid crystal-based integrated optical devices for telecommunications, and worked in the field of integrated optical chemistry sensing technology at the Georgia Institute of Technology Laboratory. He is named as the inventor of 5 issued US patents.

In the graduate school, he focused on synthetic organic chemistry for pharmaceutical applications, and in the graduate school he conducted research focused on the synthesis of bicyclic ketal cores of saragodic acid. His undergraduate studies were related to the synthesis of trypanothion reductase inhibitors and to the mechanistic study of Kreizen dislocations.