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Yieyie_Yang
Yieyie Yang, Ph.D.
Associate
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  • 901 New York Avenue, NW
  • Washington, DC 20001-4413
+1 202 216 5170
yieyie.yang@finnegan.com yieyie.yang@finnegan.com

Yieyie Yang, Ph.D.

Associate

  • +1 202 216 5170 +1 202 216 5170
  • yieyie.yang@finnegan.com yieyie.yang@finnegan.com
  • 901 New York Avenue, NW
  • Washington, DC 20001-4413
  • vCard
Yieyie_Yang
Yieyie Yang, Ph.D., focuses on complex patent litigation before U.S. district courts and inter partes review (IPR) proceedings in the chemical, pharmaceutical, and biotechnological fields. She has experience representing pharmaceutical patent holders in Hatch-Waxman litigations and has drafted numerous appellant and appellee briefs for pharmaceutical clients at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

Yieyie has handled various aspects of trial preparation, including fact and expert discovery, depositions of key witnesses and experts, and motion practice, along with other pre-litigation due diligence and position analysis. She also has worked on multiple IPR cases on behalf of petitioners or patent owners and has been involved in all aspects of those cases, including developing key arguments, preparing and sitting in expert depositions, drafting expert declarations and key papers, and preparing for oral arguments. In addition, Yieyie has conducted a variety of due diligence analysis in the biotechnological field for licensing, acquisition, freedom-to-operate, and startup fundraising.

Yieyie's scientific background is in molecular and cancer biology. Her graduate research focused on identifying novel genes involved in axon guidance during the development of the nervous system, and her new findings were published in peer-reviewed scientific journals. During her post-doctoral research period at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, she studied epigenetic chromatin-remodeling complexes and identified tumor suppressor candidates that interact with oncogenes during cellular transformation and tumorigenesis.

While in law school, Yieyie also paid close attention to the development of Chinese intellectual property law. Her articles on Chinese patent law have been published by peer-reviewed law journals.

Et Cetera

  • Chris Bartok Memorial Award in Patent Law, 2014.
  • Semifinalist, George Washington University Law School Giles S. Rich IP Moot Court Competition, 2014.
  • Third Place, Marcus B. Finnegan Intellectual Property Writing Competition, 2013.
  • Quarterfinalist, George Washington Law School Giles S. Rich IP Moot Court Competition, 2013.
  • Former judicial intern to the Honorable Chief Judge Randall R. Rader, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, 2013.
  • Coauthor.  "SWAN-1, A Caenorhabditis Elegans WD Repeat Protein of the AN 11 Family, Is a Negative Regulator of Rac GTPase Function," Genetics, Dec. 2006.
  • Coauthor.  "The Action-Binding Protein UNC-115/abLIM Controls Formation of Lamellipodia and Filopodia and Neuronal Morphogenesis in C. Elegans," Molecular and Cellular Biology, June 25, 2005.
  • William King Candlin Memorial Fellowship for Outstanding Senior Graduate Student, 2004.
  • Twomey Memorial Award for Excellence in Physiology and Cell Biology, 2003.

Experience

Grünenthal GmbH et al. v. Actavis Elizabeth LLC et al.

Member of team that represented Grünenthal GmbH in multiple Hatch-Waxman suits involving analgesic drugs Nucynta® and Nucynta® ER; the district court enjoined the defendants from marketing generic versions until patent expiry.

2:13-cv-04507, -06929, -07803; 2:14-cv-03941, -04617; 2:15-cv-06797, D.N.J., Judges Cecchi, Falk

Eli Lilly and Company v. Actavis Labs. UT Inc.

Member of team representing Eli Lilly in Hatch-Waxman action against several defendants relating to Cialis®.

1:16-cv-01119, E.D. Va., Judges Nachmanoff, Trenga

Eli Lilly and Company v. Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center

Member of team representing Eli Lilly in an appeal from a Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) decision in an IPR case.

IPR2014-00693, -00752, PTAB, Judges Green, Prats, Snedden
16-1547, Fed. Cir., Judges Bryson, Moore, Newman

AstraZeneca LP v. SigmaPharm Laboratories

Member of team representing AstraZeneca in Hatch-Waxman litigations against several defendants involving the blood-thinning drug Brilinta®.

1:15-cv-01000, D. Del., Judge Andrews

Actelion Pharmaceuticals v. ICOS Corp.

Member of team representing ICOS in two IPRs defending their formulation patents.

IPR2015-00561, -00562, PTAB, Judges Mitchell, Snedden, Yang

Eli Lilly and Company v. Teva Pharmaceuticals International

Member of team representing Eli Lilly in multiple IPRs involving antibody patents.

IPR2018-01422; -01423; -01424; -01425; -01426; -01427; -01710, -01711, -01712, PTAB

7 more

Insights

Prosecution First Blog

Then You Didn’t See Them; Now You Do: Co-Inventors Added Then You Didn’t See Them; Now You Do: Co-Inventors Added

July 24, 2020

Federal Circuit IP Blog

“Wherein” Clauses May Be Limiting “Wherein” Clauses May Be Limiting

September 10, 2019

Federal Circuit IP Blog

Claim Amendment to Avoid Unrelated Prior Art Protein Is Unrelated to Codon-Randomized Versions of Protein-at-Issue and Do Not Trigger Prosecution History Estoppel Under the Tangential Exception Claim Amendment to Avoid Unrelated Prior Art Protein Is Unrelated to Codon-Randomized Versions of Protein-at-Issue and Do Not Trigger Prosecution History Estoppel Under the Tangential Exception

August 28, 2019

Federal Circuit IP Blog

The Federal Circuit Adopts a Liberal, Notice-Based Interpretation of the Relation Back Doctrine Under Rule 15(c) The Federal Circuit Adopts a Liberal, Notice-Based Interpretation of the Relation Back Doctrine Under Rule 15(c)

August 26, 2019

Federal Circuit IP Blog

The Tangential Exception to Prosecution History Estoppel Should Not Be Viewed Rigidly The Tangential Exception to Prosecution History Estoppel Should Not Be Viewed Rigidly

August 23, 2019

Panel Discussion

Intellectual Property Strategies for Startups: Grow and Exit

Intellectual Property Strategies for Startups: Grow and Exit Intellectual Property Strategies for Startups: Grow and Exit

April 27, 2019

Burlingame

12 more

Professional Activities

  • George Washington Law Moot Court Board, 2014
  • AIPLA Quarterly Journal, 2012-2014
Admissions and Education

Admissions

  • Virginia
  • U.S. Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit
  • U.S. Court of Appeals, Veterans Claims
  • U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

Education

George Washington University Law School
J.D., 2014
University of Kansas
Ph.D., Molecular Biology, 2005
East China Normal University
M.S., Biochemistry, 2000
XuZhou Normal University
B.S., Biology, with honors, 1997

Languages

  • Chinese

Yieyie's Practices

Patent Litigation
Appeals
Branded Hatch-Waxman (ANDA)
Patent Trial
Pre-Trial Strategy
Patent Office Examinations
Patent Portfolio Management, Monetization, and Transactions
Post-Grant Proceedings
IPR, PGR, and CBM

Yieyie's Industries

Energy
Chemical
Life Sciences
Biologics
Biotechnology
Medical Device and Diagnostics
Pharmaceutical

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