Robert A. Bourque is a Partner in the Firm's Litigation Department and Intellectual Property Practice Group, advising on intellectual property, product liability, environmental law, and other areas. He concentrates his practice in matters involving scientific, medical, and technical expertise, utilizing his unique background (a Doctorate in Organic Chemistry before attending law school). In recent years his primary areas of concentration have been in representing pharmaceutical, health care, and biotechnology companies in many different types of matters (including intellectual property, antitrust, advertising, marketing and promotion, and product liability); high-technology companies in patent infringement actions; companies involved in intellectual property disputes relating to the Internet (particularly domain name and electronic commerce disputes); and industrial companies in litigations and arbitrations over environmental liabilities.

Mr. Bourque has recently represented a major Japanese pharmaceutical company in multinational patent infringement litigations over a blockbuster anti-infective drug (levolfoxacin) and a blockbuster hypertension drug (olmesartan medoxomil); a number of biotechnology companies around the world (including the U.S., Europe, and China) in patent, licensing and trade secret matters involving various biopharmaceutical technologies; professors engaged in medical research at major academic institutions (Rockefeller University; Columbia University; Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center) in connection with intellectual property matters, including licensing, inventorship, and university relations matters; Intel Corporation in a multi-patent lawsuit relating to Intel’s core semiconductor design and manufacturing and a multi-defendant patent infringement lawsuit involving backup and recovery software ; major investors in biopharmaceutical companies in connection with potential investments; Schering-Plough Corporation in advertising and promotion matters; Wyeth in its merger with Pfizer, in intellectual property matters involving a key drug currently in development, and in advertising litigation and counseling involving various prescription and over-the-counter pharmaceutical products (Advil, Premarin); Wyeth in litigation arising from the diet drugs Redux and Pondimin (fenfluramine); Warner-Lambert Company in marketing and advertising matters involving prescription cholesterol and diabetes drugs (Lipitor, Rezulin); the Natural Resources Defense Council in intellectual property, environmental, and other matters; Appleton Papers Inc. in environmental matters involving claims of natural resource damages and cleanup costs; Universal Music Group in connection with Internet matters; and Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc. in Internet trademark infringement litigation.

Mr. Bourque joined Simpson Thacher in 1983 and became a partner in 1990. He received his B.A. with Honors from Middlebury College in 1975, his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry in 1980 from the University of Rochester, and his J.D. in 1982 from Columbia Law School, where he was a member of the Columbia Law Review. Prior to joining the Firm, Mr. Bourque was a law clerk for The Honorable Robert W. Sweet in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York from 1982 to 1983.

Honors/Associations

•	Chairman, First Department Judicial Screening Committee, New York State
•	Member, State Judicial Screening Committee, New York State
•	Association of the Bar of the City of New York
•	New York State Bar Association
•	American Bar Association
•	Federal Bar Council
•	American Intellectual Property Law Association
•	Environmental Law Institute
•	American Chemical Society
•	American Association for the Advancement of Science
•	Member, Board of Directors, Environmental Advocates of New York
•	Member, Editorial Board, OnEarth Magazine (a publication of the Natural Resources Defense Council)
•	Member, Policy Committee, Scenic Hudson

Publications

•	Supreme Court Finds in a “Lights” Cigarettes Case That Claims for Violation of a State Statutory Duty Not to Deceive Are Not Preempted by the Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act
•	Supreme Court Hears Its Second Significant Preemption Case This Term
•	The Supreme Court Revisits the Preemption of State Law Consumer Protection Claims
•	Supreme Court Bars State Common Law Claims Challenging Medical Devices with FDA Pre-Market Approval
•	In re Seagate: A New Standard for Willful Patent Infringement
•	eBay: The Final Word?
•	The Changing Landscape of Patent Remedies after eBay
•	KSR v. Teleflex: A New Flexible Regime for Obviousness
•	Microsoft v. AT&T: Limiting the Extraterritorial Reach of U.S. Patent Law
•	The Supreme Court Rejects Automatic Permanent Injunctions in Patent Cases in eBay v. MercExchange
•	In Phillips v. AWH, the En Banc Federal Circuit Refocuses Claim Construction on a Patent's Intrinsic Evidence
•	International Registration of Trademarks: The Madrid System
•	The Martha Graham Cases: Recent Dispute Warns Companies To Secure Their Intellectual Property Rights
•	Has The Federal Circuit Finally Sunk Submarine Patents? The Doctrine Of “Prosecution Laches” Rises Again and May Render The Lemelson Patents Unenforceable - Symbol Technologies, Inc. v. Lemelson Medical, Education & Research Foundation, L.P.
•	The Year in Review: Courts Expand ISP Protection in 2001, But Pitfalls Remain
•	The Year in Review: Courts Expand ISP Protection in 2001, but Pitfalls Remain
•	Domain Names: Protecting Against Pirates
•	Tilting at the Windmills of Inherency
•	New .Biz and .Info Domain Names
•	Protecting Customers’ Private Data from Misappropriation By Institutional Identity Thieves
•	Protecting Private Data from Misappropriation by Internet “Identity Thieves"
•	Dealing With Liability Risks To Owners of Computers Used in Denial of Service Attacks
•	Domain Names - New Legislation

Speaking Engagements

•	David Ichel and Robert Bourque Chair West Legalworks Program on "The Supreme Court and FDA Preemption of State Failure-to-Warn Suits" September 24, 2008
•	Robert Bourque and Lynn Neuner to Speak at 2008 NAD Annual Conference September 19, 2008

Admissions

•	New York 1983
•	U.S. District Court Southern District of New York 1983
•	U.S. District Court District of Arizona 1990
•	U.S. District Court District of Connecticut 1990
•	U.S. District Court Northern District of New York 1991
•	U.S. District Court Western District of New York 1991
•	U.S. District Court Eastern District of New York 1993
•	U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit 2006
•	U.S. Court of Appeals 2nd Circuit 1995
•	U.S. Court of Appeals District of Columbia Circuit 2001
•	U.S. Court of Appeals Federal Circuit
•	U.S. Court of International Trade 2006

Clerkships

•	Hon. Robert W. Sweet, S.D.N.Y., 1982-1983

Education

•	Columbia Law School, 1982 J.D. Columbia Law Review
•	Middlebury College, 1975 B.A. cum laude; With Honors in Chemistry
•	University of Rochester, 1980 PhD.