James J. SchumannCounsel

James J. Schumann recently celebrated 50 years as a lawyer working with Fitch, Even, Tabin & Flannery. He began working in the firm's Chicago office in 1961 while attending law school and continued as an associate after earning his J.D. In 1988, Jim relocated to San Diego to help open the firm's first Southern California office, and he continues to practice there.

Clients have relied on Jim for a broad range of intellectual property matters, with a focus on obtaining and licensing patent rights in the field of biotechnology.  Jim’s biotech patent work has especially comprised peptide and protein chemistry, assays, microarrays, monoclonal antibodies, and molecular biology; polymer chemistry; inorganic and organic chemistry; and biomedical engineering.

Other areas in which he specializes include cryogenic storage, pumping and refrigeration, chemical vapor deposition, and low-weight, high-strength composites. In addition, Jim has extensive experience working with matters involving nuclear reactors, associated power-generating equipment, and the handling of radioactive materials.

For over 30 years, Jim has also been active in the field of semipermeable membranes, particularly reverse osmosis and ultra-filtration, and in the field of artificial heart valves, annuloplasty, and orthopedic implants, where he remains active. He assisted in protecting the pioneering use of pyrolytic carbon in medical devices, which remained unchallenged for the life of the patents.

In addition to his transactional representations, Jim has participated in various patent and trademark litigation matters, in bench and jury trials and appeals. He has deep experience handling interference proceedings in the USPTO to resolve inventorship disputes and has been lead counsel in over a dozen patent interference cases. He also handles international patent prosecution programs for his clients, and develops and helps to implement patent, trade secret, and trademark licensing programs.

Successfully secured patents in the field of peptide chemistry for a worldwide known biological institute that protected basic hormones, including many patents for a Nobel Prize winner.

Represented a small start-up company to build a patent portfolio covering key technology for medical product coatings that were unchallenged throughout basic patent lifetime, and are used today to coat components for nearly all mechanical heart valves.

Represented several designers and manufacturers of reverse osmosis membranes and related devices from the infancy of the industry, and developed the strategy used to obtain a court decision assigning a key patent to the United States government that was then licensed to multiple national and international manufacturers.

• American Bar Association
• Chicago Bar Association 
• Illinois State Bar Association 
• Intellectual Property Law Association of Chicago
• San Diego Intellectual Property Law Association