Health & Life Sciences

For over two decades, Quarles & Brady has represented biotechnology companies, universities, educational institutions, medical device companies and others in the life science industry. The attorneys in the Firm’s Biotech / Life Sciences Group are experienced in a broad range of disciplines including intellectual property, venture capital funding, mergers and acquisitions, health care and technology law. Bringing together such diverse backgrounds, the group is well positioned to assist emerging and established biotechnology and life sciences companies with the complex legal and regulatory issues affecting them.

As a full-service law firm, our capabilities include not only the protection, commercialization and enforcement of intellectual property rights, but also the securing, funding and structuring of investments, private and public financings, company formation and tax planning, and mergers and acquisitions. We are experienced in forming strategic partnerships, negotiating technology development, working with sponsored research and other research collaboration agreements, as well as helping our life sciences clients navigate the legal and regulatory hurdles that often slow the development and commercialization of their technology.

Clients turn to us for our experience with business and legal agreements involved in setting up clinical trials, including those necessary for the site, the sponsor, the clinical research organization, the clinical trial and the research funding. We understand the delicate relationships among the sponsors, granting organizations, hospitals, and physicians and provide guidance on the ethical, legal and regulatory issues involved.

Increasingly, life science companies have a component of capturing and utilizing biological data that is garnered from their research and development activities. This “bioinformatics” industry is one prime example of the crossover between information technology and life sciences that regularly occurs.

A life sciences company’s value in its early years is tied to its intellectual property. Our attorneys help clients through the often frustrating process of obtaining intellectual property protection. Our attorneys handle U.S. and international patent preparation and prosecution work for a number of businesses and institutions.

We understand the special ownership, inventorship and licensing issues involved with intellectual property derived from sponsored research and through investigator collaborations, as well as the ins and outs of working with large businesses in the industry.

Members of our group have prosecuted many of the seminal patents in the biotechnology field. We have deep expertise in immunology, proteomics, stem cell biology, genomics, glycobiology, micro-arrays, small and large therapeutic molecules, transgenic plants and animals, bioinsecticides and biopesticides, polymers, fatty acids, research and diagnostic tools and software, as well as non-biotech fields such as engineering, computer science and chemistry. We routinely obtain patents of significant commercial interest to our clients and their licensees in these areas.

We are well-versed in handling the acquisition, sale and licensing of intellectual property portfolios, large and small. We have experience licensing a variety of patented inventions, unpatented technology, trademarks and copyrighted materials for universities and companies in areas that include engineering disciplines, biotechnology and computer science. In this same regard, we have assisted professors who are entering into publishing agreements for textbooks and other materials. This experience includes drafting license agreements to address rights granted to the federal government pursuant to the Bayh-Dole Act and opining as to the scope of such rights.

Additionally, the Technology Group has experience drafting license agreements to address EAR/ITAR and related export control issues, including deemed exports for international technology transfer agreements and domestic software license agreements involving foreign national usage.

For more information on how our Biotech / Life Sciences team can assist you, please contact Jean Baker at (414) 277-5709 /  or your local Quarles & Brady attorney.