Derek C. Walter Ph.D.

Dr. Derek Walter's practice focuses on technologies in the biological and chemical disciplines, including genomics, diagnostics, DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) sequencing, and bioinformatics. He has represented clients in all phases of patent litigation in U.S. district courts, the Federal Circuit, and the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB). Derek has been recognized as a "patent star" and a "litigation star" by leading intellectual property publications.

Prior to joining Jones Day in 2025, Derek and co-counsel secured a $24 million verdict in a case related to the use of DNA sequencing for prenatal testing and a $27 million jury verdict in a case related to microfluidic droplet technology. Most recently, Derek helped secure reversal of a $96 million jury verdict in a case related to the use of DNA sequencing for the detection of organ transplant rejection. He also has had numerous successes before the PTAB, where he has successfully defended patents related to PCR (polymerase chain reaction) instrumentation, DNA sequencing, and diesel exhaust treatment and led the teams that invalidated patents related to analysis of single cells and CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) gene editing.

Derek is the author of more than a dozen scientific publications on such topics as bacterial genetics, gas phase ion chemistry, and computational chemistry.