Barbara J. Carter, Ph.D.

Barbara J. Carter is an associate at Bromberg & Sunstein. She specializes in patent prosecution and the development and management of patent portfolios in the fields of chemistry, biochemistry, pharmaceuticals and related areas.  In her practice, she advises her clients regarding infringement, freedom to operate and validity issues, licensing of technology and the development of licensing programs.  She also actively participates in patent infringement suits especially in developing the key patent and technical strategies.

Experience

• Barbara’s patent prosecution work has ranged from technology relating to stem cells to compounds used in MRI imaging; from catalytic hydroformylation and acid-catalyzed reactions to small molecule anticancer drugs and enzyme inhibitors; from ethanol production through fermentation to ethanol and syngas production through gasification of biomass; from natural products to radiosensitizers.
• Barbara advises on license agreements and licensing programs, performs due diligence and prepares freedom to operate and related opinions, and advises clients on their IP portfolio management.
• Barbara has participated in litigation between major pharmaceutical corporations regarding recombinant protein products, providing strategic advice and preparing expert reports, claims analysis, and defenses to infringement charges.
• Barbara has a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry, a Ph.D. in Bioorganic Chemistry, and post-doctoral research experience in a Supramolecular Chemistry laboratory under a Nobel Laureate.
•  Prior to her career in law, Barbara was an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at the University of Toledo, in Ohio, where she taught chemistry, biochemistry and nucleic acid chemistry courses in the chemistry department for seven years at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.
• While in law school, Barbara worked in the Technology Transfer Office and managed, in an interim capacity, the University of Toledo’s extensive patent portfolio, assisting with licensing issues, prosecution, filings, and government contracts for research.

Professional and Community Involvement

• Barbara has been an invited speaker at several conferences on fixed-dose combination and/or drug repurposing, published on the Hatch-Waxman Act and the LabCorp v. Metabolite litigation, and organized and chaired the 2007 and 2008 Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education Seminars on Current Trends in Biotech Law and Practice.
• Barbara has published extensively in the area of small molecule recognition of nucleic acids, including articles in such publications as the Journal of the American Chemical Society, Biochemistry, Journal of Biological Chemistry, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. She has presented seminars at numerous colleges and universities and presented her research at national conferences such as the American Chemical Society National Meetings and the BioOrganic Gordon Conferences.
• Barbara is a member of the Boston Patent Law Association, the Boston Bar Association, the Women’s Bar Association, the Massachusetts Bar Association, the American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA), and the American Chemical Society.
• Barbara also is a member of and volunteers with Boston Cares, a non-profit consortium of volunteers in the greater Boston area.  Boston Cares is a member of the Hands On Network, an alliance of volunteer organizations working to transform individuals and communities through service and civic engagement, with affiliates in 55 US and international locations.

Honors

• Named as a "Rising Star" in 2007 by the publishers of Law and Politics and Boston magazine. Only the top 2.5 percent of MA attorneys who are under the age of 40 or who have been practicing for 10 or fewer years are named Rising Stars through independent research and upon recommendation of their peers.
• Prior to her law career, Barbara received a Fulbright Travel grant and received a NIH Fogerty Center-CNRS Joint Fellowship for her post-doctoral research in Strasbourg, France under 1987 Novel Laureate in Chemistry Jean-Marie Lehn. In France, Barbara also received the Bourse Chateaubriand research funding for her work in the area of Supramolecular Chemistry studying macrocyclic polyamines that acted as artificial enzymes and double-helical copper complexes that interacted with DNA.
• While at the University of Toledo, she received National Science Foundation funding, American Cancer Society funding and funding from Parke-Davis Pharmaceuticals (now Pfizer) while supervising masters and doctoral students and their research projects in her research laboratory.
• Barbara’s research during graduate studies and while an assistant professor focused on RNA processing and ribozymes, RNA pseudoknots, anticancer drug interactions with DNA and RNA (bleomycin and enediynes), and topoisomerases, for which she received various fellowships and recognitions, as well as teaching awards.

Bar and Court Admissions

• Barbara is admitted to the bars of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.  She is also admitted to practice before the U.S. District Court for the Districts of Massachusetts, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. and has been admitted to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office.