Janet Xiao

Janet focuses her practice on worldwide patent procurement, patent portfolio management, and strategic planning for life sciences companies. Janet’s clients range from large multinational biopharmaceutical companies, such as Celgene and Genentech, to emerging startup companies around the world. She advises her clients on patent matters relating to various technologies, including antibody therapeutics, cell therapeutics, nanomedicine, gene therapy, drug delivery systems, diagnostics, and nutraceuticals.

Recognized by Chambers as being highly sought after for patent prosecution and strategy mandates by innovators from around the world, Janet develops and strengthens her clients’ complex patent portfolios to maximize their commercial value. She is instrumental in developing strategies for multibillion-dollar patent portfolios for pharmaceutical clients.

Janet works extensively in performing IP due diligence reviews in the contexts of VC investments, technology transactions, mergers and acquisitions, and marketing and manufacturing clearance for biopharmaceutical products. She helps some of the world’s most-sophisticated biopharmaceutical companies and investors assess potential risks and devise preemptive risk-management strategies for their product development and investments. She has led hundreds of IP due diligence projects, and is noted for her in-depth knowledge of patent landscapes in the fields of cancer immunotherapy, gene editing, next-generation sequencing, liquid biopsy, antibody manufacturing, and medical devices. Janet works regularly with patent litigators in the event of legal challenges by third-party competitors or vice versa, and she is frequently called upon to represent clients in litigation and post-grant proceedings.

Janet is the Head of firm’s China Life Sciences Group and served as co-chair of the global Life Sciences Group from 2016 to 2019. She is among the very few IP attorneys in the world who are both equipped with solid skills in global strategic IP management and knowledgeable about IP issues unique to China and Chinese clients, and she has been the go-to counsel for IP issues in U.S./China cross-border transactions and operations in China.

J.D., University of California, Berkeley, School of Law; Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles; M.S., Chinese Academy