The Biotechnology Committee for Greater New Haven will sponsor a seminar about patent strategies at Yale on Tuesday, Oct. 29, from 8 to 9:30 a.m. Titled "Forming a Patent Strategy: Legal and Commercial Considerations," the talk will be moderated by Gregory E. Gardiner, director of the University's Office of Cooperative Research in Rm. 305 of the Bass Center, 266 Whitney Ave.
Speakers will be Todd E. Garabedian, a biochemist and patent lawyer with the firm of Wiggin & Dana, and Terrence W. Doyle, an organic chemist with Vion Pharmaceuticals Inc., located in Science Park in New Haven.
Mr. Garabedian has extensive experience as an intellectual property attorney in the biological sciences, and in trademark and copyright issues. Mr. Doyle has worked in several laboratories in medicinal chemical research; he is currently responsible for research and development in small molecule drug development in the antitumor and antiviral areas.
Yale has earned $15 million in royalties from numerous U.S. and foreign patents and from technology licenses since the OCR was founded in 1982. Among Yale's major discoveries are an AIDS medication called ZeritTM -- d4T -- recently launched by Bristol Myers Squibb, and a Lyme disease vaccine now in clinical trials for humans by SmithKline Beecham and for animals by Pfizer. Yale has a large program in antiviral research directed at hepatitis and has made important contributions to biotechnology in the areas of ribozymes and gene sequencing, according to Mr. Gardiner.
Yale's scientists also made the fundamental discovery in electrospray mass spectrometry, which allows the accurate measurement of the molecular weight of macromolecules. In addition to work in life sciences, Yale is developing important inventions in semiconductor chip fabrication and fiber optics. Overall, the value of public companies founded on inventions by Yale scientists is about $750 million.
The Biotechnology Committee in Greater New Haven, seminar sponsor, is part of an overall partnership involving Yale, the City of New Haven, the State of Connecticut, Science Park Development Corporation, and biotechnology companies. The goal of the partnership is to promote the growth of new businesses developed from Yale research. The partnership has led to the creation of more than 100 new companies in the region; new education and training programs to serve the needs of high-tech and biotechnology companies; special financing programs to promote the growth of the biotechnology sector; and subsidized office and manufacturing space adjacent to Yale research facilities.