Katherine M. Kowalchyk, Ph.D.

612.371.5311  |  Email  |  vCard  |  Biography

Minneapolis Office
3200 IDS Center
80 South Eighth Street
Minneapolis, MN
55402 USA

ph: 612.332.5300
fax: 612.332.9081

 Assistant:

Kay Fahland
kfahland@merchantgould.com
612.371.5315

Education

Bar Admissions

Professional Affiliations

Presentations and Publications

Katherine concentrates her practice in intellectual property law, with a particular emphasis in biotechnology. She provides strategic patent portfolio management for clients in the biotechnology, pharmaceutical, chemical, and medical device industries. Her work in this area includes patentability assessment, strategic filing, and coordinated prosecution of worldwide patent applications, including prior art management, PTO examiner interviews, appeals, and oppositions. She also is experienced in licensing transactions, intellectual property due diligence for technology and licensing transactions, mergers and acquisitions, product launches and public offerings, including freedom-to-operate, landscape, infringement and validity analysis and opinions. Katherine also counsels clients on developments in the law related to biologic molecules, including proposed regulation of biosimilars (follow-on biologics), patentable subject matter as it relates to gene patents and diagnostic methods, and licensing.

Katherine's technical expertise in the chemical and biotechnology arts includes plant and animal genetics,immunology, cell growth and metabolism, and receptor/ligand function, humanized antibody and antibody fragment design function, therapeutics and screening systems; genetic profiling, diagnostic and prognostic nucleic acid signature systems; hybrid and transgenic plants for food and consumer products; the interface of biomedical data and software platforms; organic and small molecule therapeutics; and nanoscale devices.

Katherine writes and speaks often on intellectual property issues in the life sciences and is also a regular commentator for Pharmawire online news service.

Katherine was interviewed on "America's Most Influential Women In Government, Technology, Business, and the Law", a program created by the American Airlines Business Program. To listen to the interview, click the following link:

Kowalchyk interview as heard on Sky Radio

Education

University of Wisconsin
B.A., Bacteriology, with distinction, Phi Beta Kappa, 1977

University of Minnesota
Ph.D., Microbiology, 1984; J.D., magna cum laude, 1991

Bar Admissions

Minnesota State Bar, 1991
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, 1992

Professional Affiliations

Minnesota State Bar Association
Minnesota Intellectual Property Law Association
Co-Chair of the Women in Intellectual Property Law Committee

CASRIP presentation on Biotechnology and Pharamceutical Licensing, July 2010

Practical Patent Licensing in view of Current Case Law-Women in Intellectual Property Law CLE, October 26, 2010

Biosimilars Current Framework and Future directions - Chemical Committee of Minnesota Intellectual Property law Association, CLE, October 21, 2010

AIPLA Women in IP networking dinner-Panel discussion on Networking and Business Development skills for women in conjunction with a talk by Patricia Gillete regarding advancement of women in the field entitled "Is it really about the Shoes?, May 4, 2011

Michigan Technological Univeristy Spring Career Fair-Careers in Intellectual Property for Engineers, February 2011

Biosimilars: Recently Enacted Legislation for an Approval Pathway, The M&G Edge, April 2010

Are Genes Patentable? ABA Roundtable Discussion, February 2010

Wyeth v. Kappos: The New Calculation for Patent Term Adjustment, published in Lexis Nexis Research solutions, February 2010

Biosimilars presented to FDA group of MSBA, February 2010

The Promise of Personalized Medicine; Life Science Alley, January 13, 2010

Strategic Licensing of Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Inventions; Center for Advanced Study and Research in Intellectual Property Law (CASRIP), University of Washington School of Law, July 2009

Biosimilars in the US; Biotechnology Ventures: Beyond the Basics, National Business Institute CLE, Minneapolis, MN, October 27, 2008

Personalized Medicine: Paradigm Shift in the Pharma Business, IP Value in the Life Science Industries, Intellectual Asset Management, Supplement, 2006

Continuous Capture and Assessment of Intellectual Property, Inside the Minds: Winning Legal Strategies for Biotech Companies, 2005

Recent Patent Cases Affect the Validity and Scope of Biotechnology Patents, BioPharm International 16:58, 2003