Gerald H. Bjorge specializes in patent law, and is registered to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO). He is regarded as an expert in patent law and PTO procedure.
Mr. Bjorge’s education and employment history are summarized in the curriculum vitae below. In brief, he received his law degree in 1964 from George Washington University Law School and has been practicing law for more than 45 years. He holds a Bachelors of Science in Chemical Engineering from Northwestern University and a Masters of Science in Chemical Engineering from Princeton University. As part of his private practice, Mr. Bjorge has testified in numerous cases on issues of patent law and PTO practice. A complete list of those cases is included below. He is also the Founding Editor of the Federal Circuit Bar Journal (1990-present) and was Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the Patent and Trademark Office Society from 1975-86.
Mr. Bjorge has been in private practice with Novak Druce since early 2005 and before that was with Keil & Weinkauf from 1986-2004. The following is a brief summary of his professional experience prior to 1986. From 1961 to 1964 he was a Patent Examiner with the PTO. From 1964 to 1973 he was the Technical Advisor to Chief Judge Eugene Worley of the U.S. Court of Customs and Patent Appeals, a predecessor court of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. His position involved doing legal and technical research, as well as writing draft opinions for the judges.
In 1973 Mr. Bjorge was hired by the Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks to be a member of his legal staff. In that position as Associate Solicitor, he represented the Commissioner from 1973 to 1983 in suits in various federal courts including the Court of Customs and Patent Appeals and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
Finally, from 1983 to 1986, before entering private practice, Mr. Bjorge was appointed Examiner-In-Chief and Member of the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences in the PTO, now called an Administrative Patent Judge. In that position he served in a quasi-judicial capacity as a member of a panel which heard appeals from adverse decisions of examiners in applications for patents, and which determined priority and patentability of inventions in interferences. By statute, Examiners-In-Chief, or Administrative Patent Judges, are required to be persons of competent legal knowledge and scientific ability. 35 U.S.C. § 6.
In his past experience, both in government service as well as private practice, Mr. Bjorge has had occasion to thoroughly examine thousands of patent applications to determine whether those applications complied with applicable statutory and regulatory provisions as well as case law. He regularly made such determinations as an Examiner, a Technical Advisor working with judges in the Court of Customs and Patent Appeals, a Law Examiner/Associate Solicitor, an Examiner-In-Chief and Member of the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences, and as a lawyer in private practice.
Case list in which testimony was presented
Practice Areas
Admissions
- U.S. Supreme Court
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
Education
- The George Washington University Law School, J.D.
- Princeton University, M.S.Chemical Engineering
- Northwestern University, B.S.Chemical Engineering
Professional Affiliations
- The Federal Circuit Bar Association
- American Intellectual Property Law Association
- D.C. Bar Association, PTC Section
- Patent Lawyers Club of Washington
- Patent and Trademark Office Society
- Association of Former CAFC Law Clerks and Technical Advisors