Yieyie Yang

Of Counsel
Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, LLP

Yieyie Yang, Ph.D., focuses on complex patent litigation before U.S. district courts and inter partes review (IPR) proceedings in the chemical, pharmaceutical, and biotechnological fields. She has experience representing pharmaceutical patent holders in Hatch-Waxman litigations and has drafted numerous appellant and appellee briefs for pharmaceutical clients at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.Yieyie was named by Best Lawyers in its “Ones to Watch” list for excellence in patent law.
Yieyie has handled various aspects of trial preparation, including fact and expert discovery, depositions of key witnesses and experts, and motion practice, along with other pre-litigation due diligence and position analysis. She also has worked on multiple IPR cases on behalf of petitioners or patent owners and has been involved in all aspects of those cases, including developing key arguments, preparing and sitting in expert depositions, drafting expert declarations and key papers, and preparing for oral arguments. In addition, Yieyie has conducted a variety of due diligence analysis in the biotechnological field for licensing, acquisition, freedom-to-operate, and startup fundraising. 
Yieyie’s scientific background is in molecular and cancer biology. Her graduate research focused on identifying novel genes involved in axon guidance during the development of the nervous system, and her new findings were published in peer-reviewed scientific journals. During her post-doctoral research period at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, she studied epigenetic chromatin-remodeling complexes and identified tumor suppressor candidates that interact with oncogenes during cellular transformation and tumorigenesis. 
While in law school, Yieyie also paid close attention to the development of Chinese intellectual property law. Her articles on Chinese patent law have been published by peer-reviewed law journals.

Speech title & Synopsis

Navigating your Life Sciences Post-Grant Challenges:  Tips for best practice when you are challenging or being challenged in the EPO or USPTO
 
The Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act (BPCIA) and the Changing Landscape for Biologics and Biosimilars
 
Panel Discussion:  The Impact of Clinical Trials on Patentability—novelty, non-obviousness, and inherency

Obtaining global protection for your innovation can be challenging, particularly when considering the different rules and legal systems in the USA and Europe.  In this seminar we will explain the post-grant challenges to patents that can be launched in the USA and in Europe, highlighting the opportunities and potential pitfalls within the two legal systems.  We will also discuss the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act (BPCIA) in the USA and the litigation that has followed.  Finally, we will have a panel discussion on the impact of clinical trials on patentability of inventions, addressing the relevance of publication of clinical trial data to assessment of novelty and inventive step in both the USA and in Europe.