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UC Berkeley Plant & Microbial Biology’s Career Development Series for Scientists & Engineers

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UC Berkeley’s Department of Plant & Microbial Biology is hosting a three-week in-person short course designed to help scientists...

UC Berkeley’s Department of Plant & Microbial Biology is hosting a three-week in-person short course designed to help scientists and innovators navigate key intellectual property issues and business considerations in research, commercialization, and career development.<h4>Course Schedule</h4>The three-week course began on Tuesday, April 8, 2025, and took place weekly through April 23, from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. PT.<h5>April 8: IP 101 and the Saga of a Professor Who Tried to Steal University IP</h5>MoFo partner Mike Ward will discuss Intellectual Property (IP) 101, including an introductory discussion about patents, trade secrets, copyrights, trademarks, and plant variety protection. He will also discuss the difference between patentability and patent infringement and protecting new plant varieties in the U.S. and Europe, and share the saga of a professor who tried to steal his invention from his university and the legal dispute that erupted.<h5>April 15: Forming a Startup Company and Licensing Technology</h5>MoFo partners John Rafferty and Cooper Spinelli and associate Hannah Koo will discuss the keys to success in forming a new company. John will review how to form a new company and what mistakes to avoid as you get started. Cooper will introduce you to key employment issues to consider as you get started.<h5>April 22: Panel Discussion: Alternative Careers for Scientists and Engineers – Law, Business, and Investing</h5>MoFo partner Mike Ward will moderate a panel on Alternative Careers for Scientists and Engineers. The panelists will include <a href="https://www.fall-line-capital.com/team/yanniv-dorone" target="_blank">Yanniv Dorone, Ph.D.</a> from Fall Line Capital, Felicia Burns, Caressa Tsai, Garreth McCrudden, Emily Jane Roberts, and John Chapman. The panelists will discuss their paths from the lab to their careers as venture capital investors, patent agents, and patent lawyers.<hr>

UC Berkeley Plant & Microbial Biology’s Career Development Series for Scientists & Engineers

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Michael (Mike) Ward is co-chair of the firm's Life Sciences + Healthcare Group, Patent Group, Intellectual Property Group, and Food + Agriculture Group.As co-chair of the Patent Group, Mike manages a team that includes 80+ Ph.D.s and 100+ attorneys and others with advanced scientific degrees in life sciences and related engineering disciplines. From small molecules and antibodies to gene editing, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, MoFo has deep experience protecting some of the most important innovations in the life sciences and food and agriculture sectors.Life SciencesFor his work across the life sciences sector, Mike was named San Francisco Biotechnology Lawyer of the Year by Best Lawyers in America in 2020 and is recommended for his patent strategy and prosecution practice in LMG Life Sciences. He also led the team that was named 2022 Patent Management and Strategy Firm of the Year at the 2022 LMG Life Sciences Americas Awards.Food + AgricultureRecognized as “one of the world’s foremost plant and agriculture IP lawyers,” Mike manages a wide range of intellectual property issues related to plants and plant products. He and his team advise clients on plant and plant utility patents; licensing agreements for plant IP; litigation in U.S. state and federal court and before the International Trade Commission; and regulatory approvals from the USDA, FDA, and EPA for gene edited and genetically engineered plants.Patent Strategy + ProsecutionMike is a Legal 500 US Hall of Fame lawyer for patent prosecution and is consistently named one of the leading IP lawyers by Managing Intellectual Property, Chambers USA and Chambers Global, and IAM Patent 1000.Mike works closely with many clients to develop and manage their patent portfolios. He helps clients identify, monitor, and assess the infringement risks of third-party patents. He also assists clients in preparing both offensive and defensive patent portfolios, with a particular emphasis on drafting patent applications that will be utilized in licensing and in litigation efforts.IP Due DiligenceFor venture capitalists seeking to invest in early- and mid-stage companies, underwriters involved in IPOs, and companies seeking to acquire or merge with other companies, Mike has managed extensive IP diligence. His work includes assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of patent portfolios, evaluation of freedom to operate issues, and strategic recommendations for maximizing the value of patent portfolios going forward.Mike also works closely with the IP Litigation Group on various litigation matters including patent interferences to determine the first-to-invent and patent re-examination work and actively participates in both mediation and arbitration proceedings on behalf of clients in the life sciences and food and agriculture areas.He is a frequent lecturer and speaker. Among numerous speaking engagements, Mike is the IP instructor at the UC Davis Licensing Academy and founded Morrison Foerster’s annual Harvard Biotechnology Club Fall Patent Law Course.Mike holds a Ph.D. in plant physiology (biochemistry) and an M.S. in agronomy from the University of California, Davis; a B.S. in biology from the University of California, Berkeley; and a J.D. from Golden Gate University School of Law. He was a post-doctoral fellow in plant molecular biology at the Harvard Medical School and the Department of Molecular Biology at Massachusetts General Hospital, where he worked on the Arabidopsis genome project.

Michael Ward

Partner

John Rafferty focuses his practice on representing emerging growth companies in a broad range of corporate and securities law matters. John's practice includes private financings, public financings, mergers, tender offers, and strategic and financial investments.John advises emerging growth companies backed by venture capital and private equity firms on all corporate, transactional and financing matters. He also advises early and late-stage investors in capital raising transactions. John's practice also includes extensive experience in preferred stock financings, debt financings, and secondary offerings.John led the launch of MoFo’s <a href="https://scaleup.mofo.com/" target="_blank">ScaleUp website</a> which is focused on providing resources to start-up companies, entrepreneurs, and early-stage investors.John also regularly counsels boards of directors of public companies on corporate governance issues, fiduciary duty matters (both generally and in the M&A context), compliance with the U.S. federal securities laws, and compliance with the listing standards of NASDAQ and the New York Stock Exchange.John's transactional and counseling background has involved matters for clients in a broad range of industries, including technology and Internet-based businesses; life sciences and healthcare; communications and media; and retail.

John M. Rafferty

Cooper Spinelli is a member of the Litigation Department and part of the firm’s Employment & Labor Group. His practice focuses on trade secrets and restrictive covenants, employee mobility and executive disputes, whistleblower claims, and general business litigation.Cooper has represented clients in both affirmative and defensive trade secret misappropriation and employee mobility cases, including cases involving related IP issues. Cooper has, for example, represented a Fortune 50 company in prosecuting an employee-raiding and computer-fraud case against former high-level executives and managers, resulting in a favorable settlement. Cooper also defended a North American provider of IT solutions and services in a series of putative trade secret and employee mobility cases, helping oversee defensive and affirmative litigation across multiple state and federal jurisdictions. And on behalf of a leading multi-cloud security and application management company, Cooper is defending and has helped secure an initial dismissal of a 12-defendant, 26-cause-of-action case in federal court concerning claims of copyright infringement, fraud, and tortious interference based on alleged conduct in Russia and California.In addition, Cooper has represented companies in highly sensitive matters involving involuntary and negotiated departures of chief executive and other senior officers.Cooper also regularly advises innovative startup companies on a range of employment matters, including restrictive covenant and employee mobility issues, at various stages of their lifecycle.Cooper has also contributed to papers and leading treatises addressing trade secrets, employee mobility, and other related issues, including chapters for leading BNA treatises Trade Secrets: A State-by-State Survey, Covenants Not to Compete, Employee Duty of Loyalty, and Tortious Interference in the Employment Context.Before joining the firm, Cooper was an employment and litigation associate at an AmLaw 100 law firm. Before that, he clerked for the Hon. Steven B. Berlin at the Department of Labor, Office of Administrative Law Judges in San Francisco.Cooper received his J.D. magna cum laude from American University Washington College of Law, where he was elected to the Order of the Coif. During law school, Cooper was a senior editor on the executive board for the Administrative Law Review, the official law journal of the American Bar Association Section of Administrative Law & Regulatory Practice.Cooper received a B.A. with distinction from the University of California, Berkeley.

Cooper Spinelli

Dr. Felicia Burns focuses on patent preparation and prosecution, with an emphasis on small molecules and pharmaceuticals.Felicia has experience in both organic chemistry and microbiology and assists with a wide range of clients, including small entities and larger companies in the biotech, chemistry, and pharmaceutical spaces. She conducted her doctoral studies in chemistry at Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY. Her doctoral research focused on the design and synthesis of small molecule bacterial inhibitors, and the exploration of their protein targets.Felicia received her B.A. in chemistry, with an emphasis in analytical chemistry, from the College of Saint Benedict, St. Joseph, MN, where her research focus was the development of novel methods of detecting markers of oxidative stress.

Felicia Burns

Scientific Analyst

Caressa Tsai is an associate in Morrison Foerster’s San Francisco office and a member of the firm’s Patent Strategy + Prosecution Group.Caressa’s practice focuses on life sciences and biotechnology patent drafting and prosecution.Before joining Morrison Foerster as an associate, Caressa was a summer associate and law clerk at the firm in the Two-Summer Patent Program.Caressa received her J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, where she was a publishing editor of the California Law Review and a senior life sciences editor for the Berkeley Technology Law Journal. She received Jurisprudence Awards for Life Sciences and Innovation Workshops I and II, the Prosser Prize for Intellectual Property Law, and the Law and Technology Certificate.Prior to law school, Caressa received her Ph.D. in biochemistry and biomedical sciences from McMaster University. Her Ph.D. research focused on exploiting host immune pathways for anti-infective drug discovery in Salmonella. She graduated with an H.B.Sc. with high distinction in biology from the University of Toronto, where her research focused on bioinformatic approaches to detect signatures of selection in intrinsically disordered proteins. Caressa has experience in research and matters relating to bacterial genomics, molecular biology, protein biochemistry, infectious diseases, immunology, and computational biology.

Caressa Tsai

Associate

Dr. Garreth McCrudden is an associate in Morrison Foerster’s San Francisco office and a member of the firm’s Patent Strategy + Prosecution Group.Garreth’s practice focuses on patent drafting, strategy, and prosecution for clients in the chemical and pharmaceutical fields.Garreth earned his J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, where he was elected to the Order of the Coif. At graduation, he was awarded the Thelen Marrin Prize for his paper on intellectual property and administrative law.Prior to law school, Garreth was a postdoctoral scholar at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, where he led experiments generating entangled photons to study light absorption during photosynthesis.Garreth completed his undergraduate and doctoral degrees in chemistry at the University of Oxford. His research focused on a combined experimental and theoretical study of the energy transfer processes that take place during individual non-reactive atom-molecule collisions. Garreth’s research experience includes technical training in laser physics, ultra-high vacuum systems, and computational gas-phase reaction dynamics.Garreth maintains an active pro bono practice, with a particular focus on immigration-related matters. He is fluent in Spanish.

Garreth McCrudden

Emily’s practice focuses on patent preparation, prosecution, and counseling.While Emily was a summer associate at MoFo, she assisted in the preparation of patent applications, responses to office actions, and freedom to operate analyses.Emily received her J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law. While in law school, Emily was a production editor for the Berkeley Technology Law Journal and president of the Patent Law Society. She earned a Law & Technology Certificate from the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology; she also received first place in the USPTO National Patent Drafting Competition. In addition, Emily served as research assistant for the Reproductive Justice Project, where she prepared a report for the general counsel of Planned Parenthood of Northern California to provide an update on current California laws regarding search warrants and how clinics can better handle law enforcement while maintaining a patient’s confidentiality.Emily holds a Ph.D. in materials chemistry from the University of Southern California and a B.S. in chemistry from the University of California, Santa Cruz. As a graduate student at the University of Southern California, Emily's research focused on developing more sustainable methods of synthesizing colloidal inorganic nanoparticle catalysts. She developed processes and materials for renewable energy applications and a novel microfluidic nanomanufacturing process to scale nanoparticle fabrication for use as renewable energy fuel catalysts.She is admitted to practice in California.

Emily Roberts

Dr. Chapman provides patent and intellectual property services to clients on pharmaceutical, chemistry, biotechnology, and medical device matters.He is experienced in drafting patent applications, proactively prosecuting domestic and foreign patent applications, and assisting with due diligence and freedom-to-operate assessments. Dr. Chapman is committed to providing responsive client service utilizing the firm’s collective legal and scientific capabilities. Since joining the firm in 2013, he has worked with a variety of clients including startup biotechnology, chemistry, and medical device companies; large pharmaceutical companies; academic institutions; and independent inventors. Dr. Chapman’s scientific education includes studies in medicinal chemistry, proteomics, mass spectrometry instrumentation and application, biochemistry, pharmacology, molecular biology, and chemistry. His technical background also includes training and research conducted at: the David R. Goodlett Laboratory (utilized mass spectrometry instrumentation to identify novel protein pathway responses and protein post-translational modifications); Amgen (utilized mass spectrometry instrumentation to study antibody-drug conjugates); and the Southwest Environmental Health Sciences Center (studied protein adduction by environmental toxicants).He is admitted to practice in California and before the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office.

John Chapman

Hannah Koo is a Technology Transactions associate in the firm’s San Francisco office.Before joining Morrison Foerster, Hannah was a summer associate in the Boston office during the summer of 2020. She also served as a Legal Extern in the Complex Frauds and Cybercrime Unit of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.Hannah earned her J.D. at Columbia Law School, where she was a James Kent Scholar and served as the Articles Editor for the Columbia Business Law Review. She holds a B.A. from Duke University.Hannah is fluent in Korean.

UC Berkeley Plant & Microbial Biology’s Career Development Series for Scientists & Engineers

08 Apr 2025 - 22 Apr 2025

Course Schedule

April 8: IP 101 and the Saga of a Professor Who Tried to Steal University IP

April 15: Forming a Startup Company and Licensing Technology

April 22: Panel Discussion: Alternative Careers for Scientists and Engineers – Law, Business, and Investing