Jeffrey E. Depp

Jeffrey E. Depp is senior counsel for law and policy at the Committee for Justice. He also serves as executive director of the Center for Innovation, Competition & Entrepreneurship Policy and as an intellectual-property attorney with Hillcrest Intellectual Property Services.

His research and policy interests focus on competition policy, intellectual property, innovation policy, and the intersection of antitrust and patent law, particularly as they affect technology commercialization and the life-sciences sector.

Previously, Depp was senior director of intellectual property at the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA). He also worked in technology commercialization and intellectual-property licensing at the University of Pittsburgh Innovation Institute, where he helped protect and commercialize university research and supported new venture formation.

Earlier in his career, he served as a judicial law clerk in the U.S. District Court’s Patent Pilot Program for the Western District of Pennsylvania and practiced law as of counsel at Jones, Gregg, Creehan & Gerace LLP, advising businesses and professionals on regulatory compliance, licensing, transactions, and litigation.

Before entering law and policy, Depp held multiple business-development and technical roles at Merck & Co., where he worked on academic partnerships, product-launch strategy, and manufacturing support.

Depp was a Thomas Edison Innovation Law and Policy Fellow at the Center for Intellectual Property x Innovation Policy.

He holds a bachelor’s from Carnegie Mellon University, a J.D. from the Thomas R. Kline School of Law of Duquesne University, and an M.B.A. from Carnegie Mellon University. He also completed doctoral studies in public and international affairs at the University of Pittsburgh, focusing on innovation policy, international political economy, and law & economics.