Director, Intellectual Property

Work Requirement

This role will be based out of our Vancouver or Bellevue office and is hybrid with a minimum of 3 days per week onsite.

Key Responsibilities

• Works with the Senior Vice President, Corporate Secretary and General Counsel and Senior Director, Intellectual Property to implement the business strategy of the company through development and protection of the company's intellectual property assets.
• Works with the Senior Director, Intellectual Property to provide oversight for all aspects of the company's intellectual property program, including patents, trademarks, copyrights and trade secrets.
• Provides leadership to the Intellectual Property group, nurturing a culture of engagement, respect and high-performance within a team environment. Provides coaching and feedback; mentors and empowers personnel.
• Partners cross-functionally to develop and implement business initiatives and processes to identify and select opportunities for patent protection.
• Provides hands on-support for a portion of the company's R&D programs, including meeting regularly with scientists to identify novel inventions and assist in drafting invention disclosures and planning experiments required for patent applications; formulates patent strategy for the programs; assesses freedom to operate for potential products and drafts and prosecutes patent applications.
• Effectively manages outside counsel in patent prosecution worldwide, and other matters such as patent landscape, freedom to operate, risk assessments, opinions and adversarial proceedings.
• Provides support to the Business Development and Legal groups on intellectual property aspects of agreements, including material transfer, licensing, clinical trial, manufacturing and strategic partnership agreements and provides input to relevant transactional documents and negotiations.
• Monitors compliance under existing agreements and acts as a liaison with partners, licensees, etc. for intellectual property matters.
• Performs US and foreign IP searches as required to determine patentability and freedom to operate.
• Ensures that senior management is aware of patent-related risks and mitigation options on a timely basis.
• In conjunction with outside counsel, manages intellectual property-related adversarial proceedings involving the company's trademarks, platform technologies, products and product candidates.
• In conjunction with senior management and outside counsel, manages and facilitates patent due diligence evaluations conducted by collaborators, partners, licensees and investors.
• In conjunction with senior management and outside counsel, conducts patent due diligence on programs, products or patents proposed for in-licensing.
• Reviews public disclosures such as publications, presentations and press releases.
• Manages existing IP portfolio requirements and monitors deadlines. Identifies active patents assigned/licensed that are no longer important to the business and makes recommendations concerning possible licensing, divesture or abandonment.
• Anticipates future challenges and risks to the company and innovates to find solutions and mitigation strategies across product portfolio.
• Develops and implements policies, procedures and training for ensuring company compliance with intellectual property laws and the management of patent prosecution and litigation related risks in accordance with best practices.
• Leads through example to establish an environment fostering effective and collaborative working relationships amongst employees, management and external partners.
  

Education and Experience

• JD or LLB with a bar admission in the United States or Canada and a PhD or equivalent in Molecular Biology, Structural Biology, Immunology, Biochemistry, Chemistry or a related discipline.
• 10+ years experience working in a law firm or in-house IP department
• Licensed/admitted to practice before the US PTO and/or CIPO with a working knowledge of antibody-based therapeutics.

Skills and Abilities

• In depth understanding of the rules, regulations and procedures of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
• Experience running complex scientific and legal prior-art/freedom-to-operate searches.
• Experience drafting and prosecuting patent applications.
• Excellent analytical and conceptual thinking abilities, forward-looking.
• Experience advising business stakeholders on IP strategies, risk, and deploying associated mitigation strategies.
• Experience managing patent litigation and/or other adversarial proceedings such as IPRs, PGRs and European Oppositions is an asset.
• Exceptional oral and written communication skills and the ability to present findings with confidence to senior management.
• Ability to adapt to a rapidly evolving business environment, balance the needs of multiple stakeholders with the company's overall intellectual property goals and to effectively manage multiple concurrent deliverables.
• Strong leadership skills with the ability to mentor and develop strong contributors.
• Demonstrated high level of integrity and ethics.
• Proficiency with MS Office.
• Strong attention to detail.