Vernon R. Rice - Of Counsel

Mr. Rice serves as Of Counsel in the firm.  He practices in the area of domestic and international patent prosecution, and also teaches courses at the Brigham Young University Law School as well as representing the firm in many community activities and entrepreneurial and innovation programs.  He has broad experience in industrial chemistry, polymer chemistry, life science and biochemistry technologies.  Mr. Rice joined Workman Nydegger in 2004 after retiring from a distinguished career at DuPont, where he served as Vice President and Assistant General Counsel, overseeing all DuPont intellectual property work, including that of domestic and international subsidiaries. While at DuPont his experience included prosecution of chemical patent applications in the United States and major countries of the world; managing an international patent and trade secret licensing program; and overseeing a 75 lawyer intellectual property law group that handled all of DuPont’s intellectual property legal work including patent procurement and litigation, and aspects of DuPont’s biotechnology portfolio.

Later as Group Counsel, he supervised the commercial attorneys of the DuPont textile fibers businesses. In that capacity he handled commercial legal work and antitrust matters.  At that time, he also managed a legal group responsible for corporate mergers and acquisitions.

Mr. Rice also served as Chief Counsel-Environment, supervising a group that handled environmental and safety issues. In that capacity, he had extensive experience in legislative and lobbying activities and led legal efforts to achieve regulatory reform of major industrial manufacturing operations.  He was later given the added responsibility of DuPont’s Chemical Solutions and Materials and Logistics businesses.

Mr. Rice then rose to serve as DuPont’s Chief Counsel-Intellectual Property, overseeing patent and trademark work of some fifty in-house IP lawyers. He culminated his career at DuPont as Vice President and Assistant General Counsel, overseeing all DuPont intellectual property work, including that of domestic and international subsidiaries. In addition, to serving as Chief Counsel-IP, he was also Chief Counsel of the Asia/Pacific region and of DuPont’s Agricultural and Nutrition business where he oversaw legal aspects of DuPont’s biotechnology businesses.

Upon returning to Salt Lake City, he became an adjunct professor of law at Brigham Young University  where he has taught courses on patent law, intellectual property/antitrust law and biotechnology law and ethics for the last seven years.

Since joining the firm, Mr. Rice is active in entrepreneurship activities and is associated with entrepreneur/innovation programs at Brigham Young University, the University of Utah, Utah State University, the State of Utah, Grow Utah Ventures and various local angel investing groups.

Technical Experience

• Pharmaceutical, Chemical, Biotechnology & Life Sciences
• Alternative Energy

Publications

Peter F. Malen & Vernon R. Rice, Non-Disclosure Agreements; The Essential Component of Technology Transfer and Exploitation, Chemical Pilot Magazine 16 (Winter 2005).

Education

• 1966 - George Washington University School of Law
• 1963 - B.S. Chemistry, Utah State University, with honors

Professional Admissions and Associations

• Virginia State Bar
• Registered Patent Attorney
• American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA)
• American Bar Association
• Intellectual Property Owners Association

*Admitted only in Virginia