Description:
The Role:Generate Biomedicines is seeking a Senior Patent Counsel to join its Legal team and support intellectual property across Generate's platform, research, preclinical, clinical, and collaboration activities. Reporting to the Vice President & Head of Intellectual Property, this individual will work closely with scientists, engineers, program teams, clinical and regulatory colleagues, corporate development, and outside counsel.
Generate is seeking individuals with excellent command of U.S. and international intellectual property laws and expertise in building complex patent estates for protein therapeutics and related platform technologies. We are searching for a driven, enthusiastic, and self-motivated individual who is comfortable multitasking and working independently in a fast-paced, collaborative, fun, start-up biotech environment.
Here's how you will contribute:
- Partner closely with R&D and platform teams to identify and capture inventions and recommend appropriate patent, trade-secret, or combined protection strategies.
- Work with outside counsel to draft, file, and prosecute patent applications and to manage a complex global patent estate.
- Manage day-to-day patent portfolio matters, including prosecution strategy, deadlines, docketing, outside-counsel relationships, and review of work product and spend.
- Conduct or coordinate patentability, freedom-to-operate, and landscape analyses; provide clear preliminary assessments and practical recommendations.
- Support IP aspects of collaborations, licenses, sponsored research, vendor agreements, and other strategic transactions.
- Review proposed publications, presentations, abstracts, and other external disclosures for patent considerations, coordinating with inventors and outside counsel to protect filing opportunities.
- Educate and advise scientists and senior management about key IP principles and processes, advance IP/patent awareness within Generate's company culture, and monitor legal developments that may affect Generate's patent strategy.
The ideal candidate will have:
- JD from a reputable law school and admission in good standing to at least one state bar and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
- Minimum 5–8 years of patent law experience involving biotechnology inventions, preferably with a mix of significant in-house experience and law firm experience; experience with artificial intelligence technologies is not required, but would be looked upon favorably.
- An advanced degree (e.g., MS or PhD) in biology, biochemistry, or similar field, strongly preferred.
- Direct experience with preparing and prosecuting patent applications, managing global patent portfolios, and performing freedom-to-operate, patentability, and landscape analyses in the field of biologic therapeutics.
- IP transaction experience, including due diligence and IP-related agreements (e.g., licensing, collaboration, vendor, and sponsored research agreements).
- Experience with U.S. and/or foreign adversarial proceedings (such as patent litigation or USPTO proceeding) is not required, but would be looked upon favorably.
- Experience managing outside counsel and related budgets.
- Excellent analytical, writing, and communication skills, with the ability to provide clear, practical advice to management.
- Strong business judgment, organization, and adaptability, with the ability to manage competing priorities and solve problems creatively.
- A collaborative and curious mindset that is open to different perspectives, with unquestioned integrity and professionalism.
