Janet McNicholas is particularly noted for her patent-related achievements in the areas of biotechnology, pharmaceutical products, and medical products. She serves as patent counsel to biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, including start-up and emerging growth companies financed by private equity and venture capital investors. She is a frequent speaker at national and international conferences on patent matters relating to recombinant biologicals, therapeutic antibodies, bioprocessing/bioproduction, biosimilars/follow-on biologics, pharmaceuticals, Hatch-Waxman Act, generic drug development, medical devices, and partnering/outsourcing.
Dr. McNicholas advises clients in the development, management, and enforcement of worldwide patent portfolios. She writes and prosecutes patent applications for a broad range of life science technologies, has an experienced litigation and opposition practice, and advises clients in licensing and agreement matters. Her practice regularly includes conducting patentability, freedom-to-operate, infringement and validity assessments; evaluating intellectual property portfolios in connection with venture capital and private equity financings, collaborations and/or partnering deals; and mining both developing and mature patent portfolios for opportunities to maximize value.
Dr. McNicholas' experience includes more than 25 years of practice as a patent attorney, both in law firm practice and as in-house patent counsel. Prior to practicing law, she conducted research in immunology, molecular biology, biochemistry, and genetics at the University of Illinois as a pre-doctoral student and then at Stanford University and at the California Institute of Technology as a post-doctoral fellow of the Arthritis Foundation.