Morrison & Foerster, a San Francisco-based law firm, saidTuesday that it will combine practices with Ciotti &Murashige, a firm specializing in biotechnology patent law.
Ciotti & Murashige clients include Glycomed Inc., CaliforniaBiotechnology Inc., Collagen Corp., Celtrix Laboratories Inc.,Quadra Logic Technologies Inc., Stanford University and theUniversity of California.
Ciotti & Murashige had been looking to combine its practicewith that of another law firm. "We need litigation support andsome depth to do what we need to do," said Kate Murashige.
The biotechnology sector is relatively new for Morrison &Foerster, although the firm has participated in some publicofferings by biotech companies, Murashige said. Morrison &Foerster's intellectual-property group has focused on theelectronics industry, she said.
The 12 lawyers from Menlo Park, Calif.-based Ciotti &Murashige will form a new patent group within Morrison &Foerster's 45-attorney intellectual-property group. ThomasCiotti and Murashige will be co-leaders of the new group,which will be located in Morrison & Foerster's Palo Alto,Calif., office.
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