Biotechnology, pharmaceutical, and medical device companies must acquire, exploit, and, when necessary, enforce intellectual property rights to capture the value of their technology and innovations. At the same time, the intellectual property of competitors and third parties often substantially restricts the freedom to operate in research and product development.
Through lectures, case studies and in-class exercises, this course demystifies key intellectual property principles and applications, emphasizing topics of particular relevance to the biotechnology, pharmaceutical and medical device sectors. The instructor explains the basic principles of patents, and explores their strategic implications in a variety of contexts, such as securing funding, establishing barriers to competitor entry, achieving freedom to operate, technology transfer, federally--funded research and strategic alliances. While the course focuses to a large extent on patents, other forms of intellectual property such as trade secrets, trademarks, copyrights and contractual agreements are also discussed, particularly as they apply to biotechnology, pharmaceutical, and medical device companies.
This course benefits scientific, engineering, regulatory, business and legal professionals from biopharmaceutical and other technology-based industries who need to understand and manage one of their companies' most valuable assets.
