Wayne A. Keown, Ph.D.

Dr. Wayne Keown has been counseling clients in patent law for 34 years. He has extensive experience in patent prosecution, patent litigation, due diligence, validity and infringement opinions, licensing, acquisitions, appeals, oppositions and revocation proceedings, fundraising, portfolio creation and expansion, US government grants, inventorship disputes, and international patent matters. Since being co-recipient of the outstanding Ph.D. candidate award and then graduating first in his law school class, Wayne has been a senior partner in a prominent general practice law firm, of counsel to general practice and patent boutique law firms, founder of a boutique patent law firm and in-house counsel at a biotechnology startup company.

Wayne has prepared, filed, and successfully prosecuted hundreds of patents related to immunotherapy, stem cell treatments, genetic disorders, epigenetics, metabolic diseases, cancer, design and synthesis of small molecule therapeutics, materials science, and diagnostics. He has also successfully challenged the validity of patents in post-grant proceedings in the United States Patent and Trademark Office and in the European Patent Office.

Wayne’s patent litigation practice has included successful enforcement of patents on blockbuster therapeutics produced using recombinant DNA technology, techniques for separating chemical compounds, polymer science, production of therapeutic human proteins by plants, and animal models for human diseases. He has litigated patents in the US and also led patent litigation in Europe.  He has litigated inventorship (and thus ownership) disputes in the Federal Courts and coordinated with the US Department of Justice in disputes related to inventions made by or on behalf of the United States.

Wayne has extensive experience managing patent assets throughout the development process of biotechnology and small molecule pharmaceutical companies. He has helped scientists understand the value of developing and protecting their inventions. He has licensed patents from universities to biotechnology companies, and from biotechnology companies to large pharmaceutical companies. He has negotiated and drafted research and development agreements between biotechs and big pharma. During fundraising efforts, including private placements of stock and both initial and follow-on public offerings, Wayne has represented both biotechnology companies and venture capital funds. Wayne prides himself on fluently and effortlessly speaking the language of the scientists and understanding their research, thereby creating a partnership with those who invent.