Heather’s career in IP spans more than 20 years during which she has held senior positions in biotech and pharmaceutical companies and in the IP department of one of the largest owners of U.S patents.
Heather specializes in patent prosecution, freedom to operate, opinion work, and life cycle strategies for biotech inventions, and has expertise in drafting and negotiation of IP agreements.
Her most recent role was providing patent prosecution and business advice to early-stage biotech and medtech companies in Colorado, while managing the regenerative medicine and ophthalmology IP portfolios and out-licensing efforts for the University of Colorado – Denver as an Entrepreneur in Residence for CU Innovations and the Gates Center for Regenerative Medicine.
Heather has worked in-house at several companies, including becoming the Head of Patent Development for the Invention Development Fund at Intellectual Ventures where she led teams of patent attorneys and paralegals located in offices in Asia and the U.S. in selecting inventions, drafting and prosecuting patent applications, and out-licensing support. Before that, at Hollis-Eden Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Heather expanded her expertise as Associate General Counsel having responsibilities including agreement drafting and trademark prosecution, in addition to her role as Patent Counsel. Heather’s first in-house position was with Genset Corporation where she managed several patent portfolios.
In her work, Heather leverages her extensive background in biotechnology, beginning with her B.A. in biology from Tufts University, and including a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the Medical University of South Carolina, a post-doctoral fellowship in molecular biology at Harvard Medical School, and principle scientist roles in drug research and drug development at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in the U.S. and Brazil. Her work for Intellectual Ventures and the University of Colorado has expanded her technical expertise to cross-over technologies including medical devices and bio-manufacturing related products.
Heather has been granted four U.S. patents and is an author on 16 scientific publications. She regularly lectures on a wide range of IP-related subject matters at the University of Colorado.