Intellectual Property
About the Course
Strong patents are one of the most important aspects of a successful biotechnology company. If you haven’t been involved in patenting an invention, you may have misunderstandings about what can and what cannot be patented and what is important in a patent. Furthermore, to communicate effectively with patent lawyers, a basic understanding of patent law is necessary. Since biotechnology companies should be looking constantly to strengthen their patent positions to keep competitors at bay, you will also learn some aspects of company patent strategy.
The lecture features both basic material and advanced material, depending on how deeply you wish to pursue a topic. In the basic part of the lecture, you will learn about the theory of patents, patent rules and what makes for a strong patent, among other topics. In the advanced part, you will learn how to protect your intellectual property by building and maintaining patent fences and by frequent review of patent position through the company’s intellectual property committee. Finally, the lecture will and we will explore important legal and policy issues as they relate to drug discovery and development.
Basic materials
- Why patents are necessary
- What can and cannot be patented?
- Patent structure
- Some patent rules: inventors, premature disclosure, first to file, full disclosure
- Provisional applications
- Kinds of patents
- What makes for a strong patent?
- Follow-on and international patents
Advanced materials
- Building and maintaining patent fences
- Company patent reviews
- Important legal, legislative & policy issues
- Recent debate and court rulings on natural products patents
- Patent rights battle over the Crispr-Cas9 technology?
- Patent battle over the antiviral drug Sofosbuvir?
- Exclusivity period for branded biologics
Each online lecture is equivalent to about 2-3 live classroom lectures.
Purchase of any lecture in this series provides several resources:
- The lecture with dozens of visuals and audios
- A mini-textbook of the lecture material, yours to download and keep
- Several handouts to supplement both the lecture and mini-textbook
- A Certificate of Completion for those who pass a simple exam on key points
- Look and listen to get a general overview of the topic
- Study the material by stopping frequently as you go through the lecture
- Read the mini-textbook to supplement the lecture and to keep as a future reference
- Delve deeply into a topic by reading the handouts and accessing directly the Internet address references on your screen
- Arrange for an Office Hours session with the lecturer as an earlier adopter
About the Instructors
Lynn Klotz, Co-Managing Director and Chief Science Officer
Lynn C. Klotz was formerly an Assistant and Associate Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Harvard University (1971-1979) and a visiting Associate Professor at Princeton University (1979-1981). He was a founder and board member of BioTechnica International (1981-1988)-an agricultural and natural products company. Within BioTechnica, he founded BioTechnica Diagnostics, a periodontal-disease DNA-probe diagnostics company and BioTal a Wales-based environmental-remediation biotechnology company. He recently served as Research Scholar and Adjunct Professor at the Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
In the fall of 2011 and 2012, Dr. Klotz taught a graduate-level Harvard Extension Course, BIOT E-210, Biotechnology and Drug Development: Tools for Business.
William Diehl, Co-Managing Director and Chief Technology Officer
William C. Diehl, Ph.D. is Coordinator of Online Graduate Programs in the Adult Education program and Assistant Professor at The Pennsylvania State University at University Park, PA. Dr. Diehl serves as Interviews Editor for The American Journal of Distance Education, and is an expert reviewer for other academic journals. He is the founder of the International Museum of Distance Education and Technology project.
Additionally, Diehl is a consultant in the corporate, higher education and government sectors. Professional experience also includes work as a K-12 teacher, web designer and developer, instructional designer, and multimedia specialist.