Charles L. Leeck is a member of the Firm's Intellectual Property Practice Group. Dr. Leeck's practice focuses on the preparation and prosecution of patent applications in the biochemical, pharmaceutical and chemical arts in the U.S. and abroad, counseling and preparing opinions in patent matters, and performing intellectual property evaluations, audits and due diligence reviews.

Dr. Leeck has extensive experience in patent law including strategic patent portfolio development, patent landscape analysis, designing suitable filing strategies, drafting U.S. and foreign patent applications and supervising foreign patent counsel. His experience also includes providing opinions pertaining to patentability, infringement, validity and advising clients on freedom to operate issues.

Dr. Leeck has drafted and prosecuted patent applications on: genes, including promoter and enhancer elements; proteins, including antibodies and chimeric polypeptides; nucleic acid and protein detection devices and methods, methods of producing and diversifying chemical libraries; secondary metabolite engineering to obtain novel anti-bacterial and anti-cancer agents; drug screening methods; protein and carbohydrate purification and analysis; recombinant DNA technologies, drug delivery devices and methods; and genetically engineered bacteria, animals and plants. He has also prepared patent applications on chemical polymers, small molecule chemical synthesis and purification, and various consumer products. He also has experience with mechanical patent applications.

Technical Background
Before earning his law degree, Dr. Leeck performed graduate studies directed to the characterization of novel gene regulation mechanisms in eukaryotic cells. His subsequent post-doctoral research was in developmental biology and was funded by a National Institutes of Health Post-Doctoral Fellowship. His practical experience in the laboratory has provided Dr. Leeck with technical expertise in biochemistry, molecular biology and chemistry, including recombinant DNA methods, protein purification, molecular genetics, microscopy, micro-manipulation, and multi-step chemical synthesis.