ALVIN E. TANENHOLTZ

REGISTERED PATENT AGENT, PATENT SEARCH SPECIALIST

Overview

Alvin E. Tanenholtz is a Registered Patent Agent in the Chemical, Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology Department of The Nath Law Group. For 33 years, Mr. Tanenholtz has specialized in the fermentation chemistry and molecular biology field of biotechnology in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, from which he retired in 1989. While a Patent Examiner, Mr. Tanenholtz was responsible for prosecuting and granting three of The Ten Patents that Changed the World, as identified in the August of 2002 edition of IP Worldwide.

Mr. Tanenholtz has examined and issued many of the basic genetic engineering patents including those drawn to the expression of human growth hormone, hepatitis antigen and erythropoietin. Mr. Tanenholtz's position on patentability was affirmed in the O'Farrell decision, the first recombinant DNA case to reach the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Mr. Tanenholtz has participated in the Conference on Patenting of Life Forms at Cold Spring Harbor and the Biotechnology Patent Conference at the American Type Culture Collection.

Mr. Tanenholtz started his career in the Fermentation, Food and Beverage division of the Patent Office. He is most noted for his role as supervisor in the patent prosecution of the landmark Supreme Court Chakrabarty patent decision and as primary examiner in both the pioneering recombinant DNA Cohen-Boyer patent and in the controversial first animal genetic engineering patent now referred to as the Harvard "Mouse" patent.

Mr. Tanenholtz has been a featured speaker at two Biotechnology Law Institute programs in New York and San Francisco. He had also spoken before the Boston Patent Law Association and the Department of Justice's Biotechnology seminar. In the fall of 1987, Mr. Tanenholtz taught a weeklong course at the Korean International Property Training Institute in Seoul. He has participated in many other professional meetings over the years.

Among the many awards Mr. Tanenholtz has received have been two of the federal government's highest commendations, the Bronze and Silver medals, awarded for his contributions towards the patenting process in biotechnology.        

He graduated from the University of Massachusetts in 1956 with a degree in microbiology.

Mr. Tanenholtz is registered to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.