Diana Hamlet-Cox, Ph.D., is a Director who focuses her practice in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. Dr. Hamlet-Cox has extensive experience in a broad range of intellectual property matters — including patent prosecution, evaluating patentability and freedom-to-operate issues, preparing patent applications and designing U.S. and worldwide prosecution strategies to maximize the value of intellectual property assets, undertaking IP-related technology analysis and evaluation, counseling on due diligence and strategic business planning involving IP, and technology assessment.
Dr. Hamlet-Cox’s practice focuses on technologically complex matters, particularly relating to biotechnology and pharmaceutical agents, including antibody technologies; molecular biology, biological chemistry, genomics, proteomics, expression profiling, transgenic animals, drug discovery, steroid chemistry, and processes and formulations.
Dr. Hamlet-Cox, who is a registered U.S. patent attorney, worked as an associate in the firm for the first 11 years of her career until she left in 1999 to work in-house in the biotechnology industry. She was Vice President of Intellectual Property at Incyte Corp., where she managed the largest privately-held gene patent portfolio, as well as a microarray technology portfolio. In 2005, she was appointed Vice President and Chief Patent Counsel for Medarex, Inc., an antibody, antibody-drug conjugate and transgenics biotechnology company that was acquired by Bristol-Myers Squibb in 2009. She returned to the firm as a partner in 2010.
Dr. Hamlet-Cox’s years of in-house experience gives her a distinctive perspective on her clients’ approach to IP issues. She understands and supports her clients’ interests in prioritizing patent prosecutions and other projects based on cost and short- and long-term business objectives, as well as based on important legal issues that may affect a company’s entire portfolio; see, for example, her speaking engagements, publications and interviews regarding the gene patenting public policy issues during her tenure at Incyte.
Dr. Hamlet-Cox carried out her doctoral research in the Biological Chemistry Department at the UCLA Medical School, on histone protein structure and function.
Education
George Mason University School of Law, Patent Law Specialty Track (J.D. 1992)
University of California Los Angeles Medical School, (Ph.D. Biological Chemistry/Molecular Biology 1985)
Yale University (B.S. Biology/Biochemistry 1975)
Membership and Affiliations
American Intellectual Property Law Association
Admissions
Virginia State Bar (1992)
California State Bar (2000)
Admitted to practice before the United States Patent & Trademark Office (1988)
Speaking Engagements and Publications
- Guest lecturer on biotechnology patent law for GMUSL Chemical Patent Practice course, 2011-present
- IBC Life Sciences Antibody Therapeutics Conference. Panelist on Intellectual Property Issues in Antibody Development. San Diego December 2008
- San Francisco Intellectual Property Law Association Meeting. Speaker on proposed USPTO continuation and claims rules changes and the effect on patent strategy. San Francisco September 2007
- FRA Pharma/Biotech IP Due Diligence Summit. Speaker on IP due diligence strategy and patent life cycle management. San Diego December 2006
- BIO IP Counsels’ Committee Meeting. Speaker on Biogenerics. San Francisco February 2006
- EuroForum International’s International Biotech Conference. Speaker on Utility/Industrial Applicability of In Silico Inventions. London November 2003
- Practicing Law Institute Conference on Preparing Patent Legal Opinions. Speaker on Intellectual Property Due Diligence in Business Transactions. San Francisco, CA October 2003
- American Conference Institute Advanced Forum on Biotech Patents. Panelist on The Elevation of the Utility Standard and its Effect on the Patentability of Gene and Protein Function and Genomic and Proteomic Sequences. San Francisco, CA October 2003
- Practicing Law Institute Conference on Preparing Patent Legal Opinions. Speaker on Intellectual Property Due Diligence in Business Transactions. New York City, NY September 2003
- American Conference Institute Advanced Forum on Biotech Patents. Panelist on “The Elevation of the Utility Standard and its Effect on the Patentability of Gene and Protein Function and Genomic and Proteomic Sequences”. New York City, NY April 2003
- Frost & Sullivan Conference on Maximizing Outcomes of Information Technology in Drug Discovery and Development. Intellectual Property Strategy. San Diego, CA November 2002
- AIPLA Winter Meeting, Women In IP Breakfast Forum. San Diego, CA; January 2002
- CLE International, Inc. Symposium on Intellectual Property Issues in Biotechnology Law: Managing External Communications: The perspective of in-house patent counsel at a biotech company. San Diego, CA; January 2001
Teaching Experience
Guest lecturer for George Mason University Law School Chemical Patent Practice Course, 2011 – present
