Debra Josephson is a Boston-based counsel at Roberts Law Firm and leads the firm’s Plaintiff Antitrust & Intellectual Property practice groups.  Ms. Josephson joined the firm in 2012. She is an experienced corporate and IP lawyer.

Ms. Josephson has represented start-up and development-stage companies, mid-sized corporations, and world-class investigators at major academic institutions in domestic and international intellectual property portfolio development, licensing, protection, and enforcement. She has strong experience in transactional services as well as assisting corporate clients in nearly all aspects of corporate, intellectual property, employment, government regulations, and other areas.

Deb regularly advises clients on the formation, operation and regulation of private companies. Her focus has been in venture capital backed pharmaceutical and medical device companies.  Specifically, she represents small companies in accessing and closing on venture capital and other equity deals.

Deb also advises issuers from the early stages of a company’s formation through financings, acquisitions and exit strategies. Debra handled series B and later venture funding for startup companies, and major licensing and technology transfer deals. Those deals involved funding in the $20 million to $60 million range.

Prior to her litigation career, Ms. Josephson worked as in house counsel and vice president at pharmaceutical, medical device, and biotechnology companies, and developed and enforced their intellectual property portfolios. As a Patent Agent, and then Patent Attorney, Ms. Josephson represented inventors before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and international patent offices in chemistry, mechanical engineering, and biology-based technologies.

Prior to her law career, Ms. Josephson was a polymer chemist, and later, worked in the regulatory affairs and clinical affairs groups of pharmaceutical and medical device companies. Additionally, Ms. Josephson is named as a co-inventor on several patent applications, the technologies of which are currently marketed or under development by various companies.

Ms. Josephson maintains strong ties with her community. She has served on several local charity boards, and boards of organizations that mentor young women scientists and businesswomen in the Boston area. She is a frequent lecturer at international law schools on the topics of complex litigation, patent law and practice, and antitrust matters.

LITIGATION HIGHLIGHTS:

• Represents a class of direct purchasers of raw milk, cheese, and butter in antitrust litigation involving a conspiracy to limit the production of raw milk and artificially inflate the price of dairy products. First Impressions Salon, Inc., et al. v. National Milk Producers Federation, et al. (S.D. Ill.)
• Represents a class of direct purchasers in an antitrust case under Sherman Act against several manufacturers of after market parking heaters. In re Parking Heaters Antitrust Litigation (E.D.N.Y.)
• Represents a small manufacturer in a challenge to patent inventorship and unauthorized trade secret disclosures in state and federal court
• Represented a class of Direct Purchaser Plaintiffs in an antitrust case under Sherman Act against King Pharmaceuticals for unlawful delay of generic SKELAXIN by filing sham patent litigation, fraud in obtaining the patents, and unlawful reverse payment settlements to generics. The case settled for $73 million. In re Skelaxin (metaxalone) Antitrust Litigation (D. Miss.)
• Represented a class of Direct Purchaser Plaintiffs in an antitrust case under Sherman Act against Astellas Pharma for unlawful delay of generic PROGRAF (tarolimus) by filing of objectively baseless Citizen Petitions to FDA.  The case settled for $98 million. In re Prograf Antitrust Litigation (D. Mass.)
• Represented a class of Direct Purchaser Plaintiffs in antitrust case under Sherman Act against GlaxoSmithKline for unlawful delay of generic FLONASE by filing objectively baseless Citizen Petitions to FDA.  The case settled for $150 million. In re Flonase Antitrust Litigation (E.D. Pa.)
• Represented a university suing a pharmaceutical company and several universities in an inventorship challenge over pioneering patents for RNAi technology. University of Utah v. Max-Planck-Gesellschaft Zur Foerderung Der Wissenschaften e.V. et. al. (D. Mass.)
• Represents several foreign universities in licensing of intellectual property and patent infringement litigation