Tracy Druce’s practice concentrates on counseling clients regarding intellectual property matters with a focus on the prosecution and strategic planning of patent portfolios. Mr. Druce is the Chair of the firm's Post Grant Law/Patent Reexamination practice group.
A significant part of Mr. Druce’s practice involves counseling both small and large companies regarding worldwide patent portfolio creation, management and exploitation. Frequently, these companies are in industries in which the technology is fast moving; therefore a focus must be maintained on the relevant market, as well as the requisite patent claim agility needed to protect short product life cycle products in a meaningful way. As a result, Mr. Druce and the teams he works with use all tools available to not only obtain patents, but obtain them quickly. Examples include accelerated examination of patent applications, as well as taking advantage of the Patent Prosecution Highway.
Mr. Druce also maintains an active role in Novak Druce’s industry-leading reexamination practice, with a primary focus on assisting patent owners in maintaining their patents when challenged in a reexamination proceeding - - in these cases, there is almost always a tandem-running litigation which must be taken into consideration. On the other hand, Mr. Druce also cooperates with the firm’s teams that challenge patents in reexamination, particularly after a client has already suffered a finding of infringement and needs to “take the patent out”.
Having been a patent attorney for nearly 20 years, Mr. Druce began his career in private practice, enjoyed a sojourn in-house with an international oil field services company and subsequently reentered private practice for the technology diversity it affords.
Mr. Druce has been a key player in launching the Novak Druce Centre for Professional Service Firms at the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School. The Centre conducts and publishes research on service firms such as law firms, accounting firms and those of general consultancy.
It should be said, however, that Mr. Druce is not all-work-and-no-play; together with a group of friends and family members, he raises and milks one of the largest all-natural Italian water buffalo herds in the United States. From the buff’s milk such products as organic yogurt and mozzarella cheese are made in their artisanal creamery in Ithaca, New York.
Practice Areas
- Patent Prosecution
- Patent Reexaminations
- Litigation
- Life Sciences
- Japanese Practice
- Trademark
- Copyright
- Internet
Admissions
- U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
- Texas
- District of Columbia
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
Education
- Texas Tech University School of Law, J.D.
- Texas Tech University, M.B.A.
- Texas A&M University, B.S. Civil Engineering