Quick Insights: Reading a Patent

A quick guide to understanding the ins and outs of a patent

Your Instructor


Reid Adler
Reid Adler
I am an attorney, innovation management adviser and educator, located in the Washington, DC area. I have supported life science related businesses and nonprofits for 30+ years, helping them translate great ideas through the research and development phase into successful products in a cost-effective and intentional manner. Serving as in-house or outside counsel, I have focused on collaborations, business development, intellectual property and risk management strategies. I have advised private and public businesses as well as major academic institutions and not-for-profit biomedical research institutes in the U.S. as well as in Europe and Asia.

Also, I have negotiated a wide variety of sophisticated technology transactions. Clients and employers have included several major biopharmaceutical companies, the J. Craig Venter Institute, Allen Institute and many others. Negotiation “adversaries” have included many of the big names in the life sciences field. Also, I was the founding director of the NIH Office of Technology Transfer during its early implementation of the Federal Technology Transfer Act. At NIH and later, I have been deeply involved with policy development related to research integrity, access to research materials and data, and the sharing of benefit from collaborations and intellectual property. I was one of the principal architects of the “Uniform Biomedical Material Transfer Agreement” (UBMTA). Additionally, I have developed innovation management programs and related policies for various clients as well as a variety of template agreements and in-house procedures.

I’m an adjunct instructor for the Biotechnology Master’s program at Johns Hopkins University. For Hopkins, I teach courses in “Managing Innovation in the Life Sciences,” “Legal Aspects of Biotechnology” and “Technology Transfer”. Recently, I founded my own site called “InnovationMatters.co” to help others learn from my experience managing innovation.

Course Curriculum


  How to Read a Patent
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