BCLA was happy to welcome attendees to hear John Wetherell give an insightful talk at our December Lunch-seminar held at the Lundquist Institute (previously LA Biomed). The lunch-seminar was co-hosted by BioLabs in their state-of-the-art research space on the 3rd floor of the stunning new MRL building. Before the talk, attendees from start-ups, academia and biotech industry mingled with each-other over a refreshing lunch served in the café of Biolabs with views over the campus and the mountains beyond. Our co-host Gary Olsem kindly offered attendees tours of the impressive BioLabs facilities- an incubator space which several of the attendees were delighted to hear were available for start-up companies.
To begin, BCLA’s Vice President, Hammond Sun, offered warm opening remarks and together with Gary Olsem of BioLabs, welcomed the speaker of the day, John Wetherell. John is a Partner at Pillsbury and the co-lead of their entire Lifescience practice. He is an Intellectual Property leader with over 25+ years’ experience closing IP deals and securing U.S. and international patents for biotech companies. His experience was obvious once John began his talk as he expertly guided us through the intricacies of patent law. He also had kindly tailored his talk to the audience which had varying levels of knowledge of patent law. Using numerous engaging examples and anecdotes from his personal experiences, John explained how patent law was relevant to those working in the biotech industry. Attendees were encouraged and often brought up questions and interests during the talk, making it feel like a lively discussion. This discussion was made further interesting by the wide array of different places and stages in the research development of attendees.
After the talk, John hosted several individual conversations while participants continued to mingle and network. We would like to thank our attendees, without whom this seminar would not have been possible. Your commitment to continue fostering LA’s biotech community is what makes our events possible!