Mr. Gildea has more than 10 years of experience as an intellectual property attorney focusing on patent, trademark and trade secret matters in the areas of chemistry, biotechnology, life science, pathogen detection and mass spectrometry. As a co-founder of a biotechnology company that was acquired in 2001, Mr. Gildea has a proven ability to create a strategic intellectual property portfolio through in-licensing as well as through the protection of internally developed intellectual property. As an inventor on numerous United States and foreign patents as well as a co-author of various scientific papers, Mr. Gildea is also an accomplished scientist.
In addition to the preparation and prosecution of patent and trademark applications, Mr. Gildea has experience with licensing, management of European oppositions, arbitration and dispute settlement. His work has also included patent infringement and/or validity analysis, freedom to operate studies, due diligence investigations, collaborative research agreements and confidentiality agreements.
Before starting his own practice in August 2007, Mr. Gildea spent almost 6 years as a Senior Attorney in the Chemical Practice Group of Applied Biosystems (a stock group of Applera Corporation). Duties included drafting, filing and prosecuting United States and Patent Cooperation Treaty patent applications primarily in the areas of nucleic acid chemistry, surface chemistry, peptide nucleic acid chemistry, mass spectrometry and diagnostic assays. Other duties included counseling scientists on patent and other intellectual property matters, negotiating and drafting license and settlement agreements and evaluating patents for validity, infringement and/or freedom to operate.
Prior to joining Applied Biosystems, Mr. Gildea co-founded Boston Probes, Inc. in early 1996. Boston Probes, Inc. was a biotechnology startup that was sold to Applied Biosystems in October 2001. At Boston Probes, Inc., Mr. Gildea managed all aspects of the company’s legal requirements and had a primary role in developing and implementing the company’s intellectual property strategy. During the first three years of operations, Mr. Gildea was also the Director of Chemistry. In this role he managed a chemistry group that produced all peptide nucleic acid probes required for internal and external use.
Before that, Mr. Gildea spent several years as a senior scientist at Millipore Corporation and PerSeptive Biosystems, Inc. where he worked on research projects in nucleic acid synthesis, protein sequencing and peptide synthesis. Mr. Gildea was also instrumental in the development and commercialization of the peptide nucleic acid technology. While at PerSeptive Biosystems, Inc., Mr. Gildea also spent a year as the Manager of the Office of Intellectual Property.
Education:
Mr. Gildea holds a Juris Doctorate from Suffolk University Law School (1996, cum laude), a Master of Science degree in bioorganic chemistry from Boston College (1988) and a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from Stonehill College (1985).
Bar Affiliations:
Mr. Gildea is admitted to practice law in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (December 1996) and admitted to practice before the United States Patent & Trademark Office (February 1996).
Professional Affiliations:
Mr. Gildea is a member of the American Intellectual Property Law Association (September 2007), the Massachusetts Bar Association (December 2006) and the American Chemical Society (May 1985).
