Intellectual property for deep tech
by Michelle Holoubek, Don Featherstone & Gaby Longsworth
Understanding the intricacies of intellectual property (IP) is vital to innovators and investors. Deep tech companies win by out-innovating the competition and by building the best products, but they often rely on protective and preventive IP strategies. Despite this, there's a fundamental knowledge gap between founders and legal strategists – we want to help fix that.
This seminar was an introductory guide into the world of IP applications and strategy, ranging from a basic outline on types of protection to specific offensive and defensive case studies. The session outlined the step-by-step process of filing, applying legal tactics, and maximizing when seeking licensing or acquisition.
This seminar was led by Sterne Kessler’s Directors of Electronics Practice Group Michelle Holoubek and Don Featherstone, as well as Director of Biotechnology & Chemical Practice Group, Gaby Longsworth. Sterne Kessler is an intellectual property law firm with over 40 years of experience in forming IP patent strategy and defending innovations.
Michelle specializes in software, digital healthcare, bioinformatics, and optical technologies, with a particular focus on the intersection of optical devices, big data analytics, and the life sciences ecosystem. She is highly experienced with patent-eligible innovations and has developed hundreds of technology and business portfolios, ranging from startups to Fortune 100 companies.
Don focuses on sectors such as climate tech, computer systems and architecture, photolithography, digital circuits, and user interfaces. As the leader of the firm’s nanotechnology industry team, he has vast experience with entities of varying size; his niches include strategic patent portfolio creation and management, PTO litigation and reexamination.
Gaby practices primarily in the fields of biotherapeutics, small molecules, biologics, immunotherapy, antibody technologies, microbiome-based technologies, synthetic biology, DNA amplification/PCR, diagnostics, vaccines, viral vectors and drug delivery. She manages IP portfolios and has managed over a thousand patentability options in the biopharmaceutical space.
