Jana E. Harris, Ph.D.

Jana has extensive experience strategically drafting, filing, prosecuting, and managing global patent portfolios for biologic technologies across multiple therapeutic areas. She provides legal opinions and risk-assessments on patentability, inventorship, invalidity, and freedom-to-operate (FTO), supporting informed decision-making for product development and commercialization. 

Jana provides strategic IP transactional support to life science companies, with deep experience negotiating, drafting, and conducting due diligence for complex collaboration and license agreements involving biologic assets and technologies. She supports alliance management and business development teams to structure and manage deals for out-licensed, in-licensed, and co-owned assets, enabling clients to build partnerships that drive innovation, co-development, and commercialization. In addition to licensing, Jana advises on a broad spectrum of IP-related agreements, including those related to mergers and acquisitions, trademarks, clinical and commercial supply and manufacturing, material transfer, and confidentiality, ensuring alignment with regulatory, business, and portfolio objectives.

Her legal practice also includes brand development, trademark prosecution and clearance, enforcement and defense strategy consulting, and support for litigation and opposition proceedings. Jana advises on trademark use and protection for product branding, labeling, and promotional materials, ensuring regulatory and market readiness.

Prior to her legal career, Jana gained extensive laboratory experience in cell and molecular biology. Her Ph.D. research uncovered a novel cytoskeletal rearrangement in C. elegans oocytes triggered by hormonal signaling during fertilization, resulting in a first author paper in Developmental Biology and a featured cover photo.