Pamela has a well-honed and diverse skillset encompassing all aspects of patent procurement both in the U.S. and abroad. Over the course of her 30-plus years in patent law, Pamela has been instrumental in obtaining over 900 issued U.S. patents for her clients. She has successfully appealed numerous cases before the Board at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and has worked with local counsel in numerous European Opposition proceedings.

With clients ranging from prestigious academic research institutions to small companies to publicly traded companies, Pamela has experience in tailoring her skills to protect early-stage inventions, as well as experience in managing complex, high-value patent portfolios, often involving multiple interested parties, and has found these experiences insightful. 

“In my work for my academic clients I’ve had many opportunities to work with licensee’s counsel at different law firms and am grateful for the opportunity to learn from them. As a result, I’ve seen a range of approaches to patent strategy and prosecution and have come to appreciate that not every approach works for every case, and thus it is important to be flexible.”

Pamela’s primary technical expertise is in biotechnology, stem cell biology, and immunotherapy— particularly immuno-oncology—acquired from research experience at the bench in industry and academia. Prior to her graduate work at Stanford University, Pamela spent several years as a research associate at Genentech, Inc. During her graduate work in the laboratory of Dr. Irving Weissman, she worked with hematologic cancers. The results of those research efforts in industry and in academia have been published in international peer-reviewed journals.

Of the many skills patent law requires, Pamela finds great satisfaction in the problem solving required.

“There is something fine about cracking the logic of a sticky Office Action by careful analysis of the prior art, and drafting a convincing response. Like working a NYT crossword puzzle: a) It takes strategy—working from what you know, then looking for the nexus to use what you know to solve the problem for which you don’t have the answer; b) Sometimes the hard answers come when you look at the grid partially filled in, just in the corner of your eye; c) It gets harder to solve over the week; d) I always learn new things from solving it; and e) Sometimes I have to consult a resource for the answers.”