Intellectual property (IP) rights are paramount to biotechnology. A biotech company's initial value typically resides in its technology and not in its product that can take years to develop. Thus, protecting a company's intellectual property can be critical to its survival and success.
At this BioE2E event, experienced intellectual property attorneys from law firms and companies will provide us with an overview of IP in biotechnology, as well as specific advice on evaluation of a company's IP portfolio. The discussion will also include common pitfalls and misunderstandings regarding procuring and enforcing patents.
Specific topics will include:
Networking session will follow.
Expected Panelists:
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Tom Ciotti, a senior partner at Morrison & Foerster, LLP
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Mr. Ciotti is a senior partner at Morrison & Foerster, LLP, a global law firm with more than 1000 attorneys. Mr. Ciotti has over 35 years of patent experience in corporations and law firms. His practice focuses on patent prosecution, licensing and consulting, primarily in biotechnology and medical devices.
His work in life sciences started in 1973 when he joined Alza Corporation. During the 1970s, he also did biotechnology and medical device work for Stanford University. He began representing Cetus in 1981 and became their only patent counsel in 1982. He worked on most of Cetus' early biotechnology patents. He also became Collagen's only patent counsel in 1981 and Chiron's only patent counsel in 1985. Morrison & Foerster still represents Chiron and Stanford. Over the years he has also been a patent counsel for the University of California, and numerous private and public biotech companies.
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Bill Smith, a biotech partner at Townsend and Townsend and Crew
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Bill Smith is currently a partner of the Chemical and Biotechnology Practice Group at the law firm, Townsend and Townsend and Crew, as well as General Counsel of Fluidigm Corporation. Mr. Smith has more than twenty years of experience in biotech patent law, and has been at Townsend since 1985. His practice focuses on strategic IP portfolio management, such as patent prosecution, oppositions and licensing, primarily in biotechnology with emphasis on immunology, molecular biology, biochips and pharmaceuticals.
Prior to joining Townsend, he was corporate counsel for DNAX Research Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology. While a partner at Townsend, Mr. Smith has represented numerous start-ups and major pharmaceutical companies, and has been in-house counsel for GenPharm International, Affymax and Protein Design Labs.
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Vernon Norviel, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary at Perlegen Sciences, Inc.
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Mr. Vernon Norviel is the General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of Perlegen Sciences, Inc. Perlegen is a startup biotechnology company focusing on scanning the entire human genome for therapeutic and diagnostic products. Recently, Mr. Norviel was appointed to the Patent Public Advisory Committee, which was established by the Secretary of Commerce under the provisions of the American Inventors Protection Act (AIPA).
Prior to joining Perlegen, Mr. Norviel was the Senior Vice President and General Counsel of Affymetrix. Mr. Norviel was previously a partner of Townsend and Townsend and Crew in Palo Alto.
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Moderator: Karen K. Wong, PhD
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Dr. Karen Wong is a Patent Agent practicing at Howrey Simon Arnold & White, LLP, a national firm specialized in intellectual property law. Prior to joining Howrey, Dr. Wong was a patent agent in the biotech patent practice group at Morrison & Foerster, LLP. She conducted her doctoral and post-doctoral research in the area of cancer biology at Harvard Medical School and Tufts Medical School. Her dissertation focuses on cloning and characterization of human genes implicated in cancer formation, and she has authored several scientific publications in the area of signal transduction. She was also awarded the National Institutes of Health Cancer Student Fellowship. In between her degree programs, she worked as a research assistant at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, where she conducted research in the area of immunology.
Her practice areas include biotechnology patent prosecution and aiding in litigation, portfolio planning, counseling for clients active in the fields of bioinformatics, therapeutic delivery, clinical diagnostics, immunology, cancer biology, molecular, cellular, and developmental biology. |