Cristin Cowles has over 20 years of experience practicing in patent-related matters, including patent prosecution, patent lifecycle management, due diligence evaluations, patentability analyses, freedom-to-operate determinations, inventorship investigations, and validity opinions. Cristin has represented a wide range of clients, including large pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology companies, academic institutions, and early-stage life science companies.

Cristin’s practice and technical experience focuses mainly on molecular biology and biochemistry, including biologics, such as antibodies and antibody drug conjugates (ADCs), biologic manufacturing processes, protein formulations, CAR-T and TCR immunotherapy technologies, biomarkers, and platform technologies. Cristin has experience developing and managing international patent portfolios directed to blockbuster therapeutic antibodies, and is experienced in life cycle management for biologic drug products.  She has extensive foreign patent prosecution experience, and has assisted with oral proceedings and oppositions before the European and Indian patent offices. 

Cristin received her Ph.D. from Princeton University in Molecular Biology, where she identified a novel maternally expressed T-box gene, eomesodermin, in zebrafish. Her research has been presented at several scientific meetings, and has been published in leading journals in the field of developmental biology.

Presentations and Publications

  • Presentation titled Patentability Criteria for Biotechnology Drugs, Centro de Estudios Superiores en Materia de Derecho Fiscal y Administrativo, Mexico City, October 22, 2015
  • Supreme Court Wrestles with the Patentability of Genes, AAPS blog, May 9, 2013

Professional Activities

Boston Patent Law Association

Honors and Awards

  • Chambers USA Ranked Lawyer, Intellectual Property, Massachusetts, 2021 – Present
  • Named to IAM Patent 1000: The World’s Leading Patent Practitioners, Intellectual Asset Management (IAM) Magazine, 2022
  • Selected to the Massachusetts Rising Stars list by Super Lawyers (Thomson Reuters) in Intellectual Property, 2011 – 2012, 2015 – 2016

Experience

Any result the lawyer or law firm may have achieved on behalf of clients in other matters does not necessarily indicate similar results can be obtained for other clients.

  • Developed international patent portfolio for a blockbuster human antibody
  • Management of patent portfolios for clinical phase antibodies and antibody drug conjugates
  • IP due diligence support for pharmaceutical company in the acquisition of an immunotherapy company relating to T cell receptor technology
  • Extensive experience developing innovator patent portfolios for biologics, including antibodies