Craig G. Cochenour, R.Ph.

Craig G. Cochenour is a shareholder of the firm whose practice of law is focused on the domestic and international procurement and enforcement of patent and other intellectual property rights.  Craig represents clients ranging in size from start-up companies to Fortune 100 and 500 companies and to universities. He has served as chair of Buchanan's Pharmaceutical Industry group. 

Craig has intellectual property experience spanning more than two decades covering a wide range of technologies. He is actively involved in U.S. and international patent and trademark prosecution, patentability evaluations, patent validity and infringement opinions, freedom to operate analysis, and trademark and service mark screening opinions. His work also covers evaluation and transfer of intellectual property rights in mergers, acquisitions and divestitures, assignments of and security interests in intellectual property, negotiation and preparation of joint venture and license agreements, and intellectual property patent litigation for the enforcement of and defense against claims of patent infringement in the US and abroad. Craig provides counseling strategies for developing cost-efficient patent estates, and he has experience managing large patent portfolios on a worldwide basis. Craig has experience in “bet the company” patent litigation and appeals before the United States Patent and Trademark Office ‘s Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB).

Craig has represented a broad spectrum of clients including those in the chemical, polymer, pharmaceutical arts, personal care products, biotechnology sector, pharmaceutical delivery and medical devices, metallurgical and ceramic industries, heavy industrial manufacturing, homeland security and defense, water treatment industries, and mining and Marcellus shale drilling operations.

Craig has been recognized for his work in the intellectual property practice as an IP Star by Managing Intellectual Property in 2013, 2014, 2018 - 2022. He also has been named to The Best Lawyers in America^® list under the Litigation - Intellectual Property and Patent Law categories each year since 2016. In 2019, 2020 and 2021, he has been selected to International Asset Management’s Patent 1000, the best-in-class listing of patent prosecution, licensing and litigation practitioners.

Prior to joining Buchanan, Craig acted as in-house chief patent counsel of a publicly traded, industrial-based corporation. He also was a patent attorney with a major pharmaceutical and chemical company, where he was responsible for obtaining and enforcing the company's patents and trademark rights, and license management. He was associated with a large national law firm prior to his corporate patent law experience.

Craig is a registered pharmacist and is the recipient of Duquesne University's McPartland-Beck Pharmacy Award for clinical excellence, the American Jurisprudence Award for Law and Medicine, and the Order of Barristers Award for excellence through the art of courtroom advocacy. He has been inducted into the Century Club of Distinguished Duquesne University Alumni.

Craig has lectured and authored publications on intellectual property matters both domestically and in Europe. He has been a frequent  lecturer on patent, trademark, and FDA topics at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, Duquesne University School of Law and School of Pharmacy, the Trans Tech Business Development Conference, West Virginia University, and the American Inns of Court, Q. Todd Dickinson Intellectual Property Chapter. Craig is the past Chair of the Dean's Advisory Council, Duquesne University School of Pharmacy.  Craig established an endowed scholarship at his pharmacy school alma mater and is a Fellow, Pharmacy Deans Society, Duquesne University School of Pharmacy.