Vicki G. Norton, Ph.D.

, serves as a team lead for the Duane Morris Life Sciences and Medical Technologies industry group. In over two decades of life science patent counseling and litigation, she has devised strategies for clients to successfully counter patent claims and demands totaling over $2 billion, has performed IP diligence for transactions and at the market offerings worth over $2.5 billion, and has formulated worldwide patent strategies for clients entering public markets with valuations of over $6 billion. Dr. Norton also audits technology portfolios and identifies patent coverage issues for her clients’ transactions, venture financings, and patent enforcement opportunities. She has handled patent matters in a variety of life science fields, including precision medicine and diagnostics, biologic drugs, pharmaceuticals, immuno-oncology, stem cell technology, transgenic plants and cells, methods to screen and make gas-absorbing materials, molecular biology, nanotechnology, combinatorial chemistry, probe amplification assays, nutraceuticals, microbiology, and devices for physical therapy. Dr. Norton has also advised clients on all facets of litigation involving technologies including diagnostics, biopharmaceuticals, transgenic organisms, small molecules and nanotechnology.

Prior to attending law school, Dr. Norton served as a research and teaching assistant at the University of California, Davis, where she conducted research on histone acetylation and chromatin structure for her doctoral thesis.

Dr. Norton is a 1994 graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law, where she was managing editor of the UCLA Law Review and elected to the Order of the Coif, and a graduate of the University of California, Davis (Ph.D., Biochemistry and Biophysics; B.S., summa cum laude, Biochemistry).

Resume

Experience

•Duane Morris LLP
- Partner, 2008-present
•Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati PC
- Partner, 2004-2008
•Pillsbury Winthrop LLP
- Partner, 2003-2004
•Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison LLP
- Partner, 2002-2003
- Associate, 2000-2001
•Lyon & Lyon
- Associate, 1994-2000

Honors and Awards

•Listed in LMG Life Sciences Intellectual Property Stars, 2019

•Named one of Daily Journal's Top 25 Portfolio Managers/Patent Prosecutors, 2013
•Voted by peers as one of San Diego's Top IP Attorneys, 2005

Publications and Speaking Engagements

Selected Publications

•Contributor, Duane Morris Life Sciences Blog

•Quoted, The Startup Drugmaker's Post-Helsinn Survival Guide, Law360, January 25, 2019

•Co-author, What Your Competitors Don’t Know Can Hurt You - The Supreme Court Rules that Secret Sales Can Trigger the On-Sale Bar Under the AIA, Duane Morris Alert, January 24, 2019

•Co-author, Think Twice Before Omitting an AI Entity as an Inventor, Daily Journal, April 18, 2018

•Co-author, IP Protection and the Cannabis Industry: Strategies and Trends, The Legal Intelligencer, April 2, 2018

•Co-author, Ten Years Of MedImmune: How License Agreements Changed, Law360, February 15, 2017
•Author, How Drug Cos. Can Minimize the Risks of Right To Try Laws, Law360, June 30, 2015
•Co-author, Virginia Enacts the First State Law Regulating Interchangeable Biosimilar Products, Duane Morris Alert, March 28, 2013
• FDA's Draft Guidance on Biosimilar Pathway Leaves Key Questions on Specific Clinical Data Requirements and Interchangeability Unanswered, GenericsWeb InnSight, February 2012
•Co-author, FDA Issues Draft Guidance Documents to Implement the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act of 2009, Duane Morris Alert, February 13, 2012
• U.S. FDA Proposes User Fees for Biosimilar Products Comparable to Fees for Branded Biologic Drugs, GenericsWeb INNsight, June 2011
•Co-author, Supreme Court Rules That Federally Funded Inventions Are Not Automatically Owned by Universities, Duane Morris Alert, June 8, 2011
• FDA Proposes Pre-marketing User Fees for Biosimilar Product Manufacturers Comparable to Fees for Branded Manufacturers, Duane Morris Alert, May 11, 2011
•Co-author, Will the Future of Gene Patents Be 'Markedly Different' After Myriad? World Intellectual Property Review, November-December 2010
•Co-author, District Court Invalidates Claims to Isolated DNA Molecules and Methods of Their Use; Finds Subject Matter Ineligible for Patent Protection, Duane Morris Alert, March 31, 2010
•Co-author, Smart Pill: So, Post-MMA, Who Gets First Slice? IP Law & Business, August/September 2009
•Quoted in Teaching Baby Biotechs to Play in the Big Leagues, Los Angeles Daily Journal, July 20, 2009
• Managing Multi-Party Patent Cases: Avoiding Too Many Cooks in the Courtroom, 19(1) IPL Newsletter (Fall 2007)
•Co-author, Effect of the Proposed PTO Rule Changes on Biotechnology Patents, cited in IP360 article, New Study Supports Biotech Fears Over USPTO Changes, IP360 (July 13, 2006)
• IP Issues for Microarrays, Biochips As Pathways to Drug Discovery, Andrew Carmen and Gary Hardiman, eds., 2006
• What Nanotechnology Means for IP, Managing Intellectual Property, June 1, 2003
•Co-author, Protecting Intellectual Property Overseas, San Diego Daily Transcript, August 1, 2002
• Unnatural Selection: Preimplantation Genetic Screening and Proposed Regulation, 41 UCLA L. Rev. 1581-1650 (1994), reprinted in Reproductive Technologies, Carol Wekesser, Ed., 1996
•Co-author, Histone Acetylation Reduces Nucleosome Core Particle Linking Number, 57 Cell 449-459 (1989)
•Co-author, Nucleosome Linking Number Change Controlled By Acetylation of Histone H3 and H4, 265 J. Biol. Chem. 19848-19852 (1990)

Selected Speaking Engagements

•Speaker, What Your Competitors Don’t Know Can Hurt You: Strategies to Avoid Secret Sales from Invalidating Your Patent, ACS National Meeting and Expo, San Diego, August 26, 2019

•Speaker, Patent Boot Camp - Responding to 101 and 112 Rejections, AIPLA Spring Meeting, Philadelphia, May 14, 2019

•Speaker, Right to Try Access to Experimental Drugs Under the Federal Right to Try Act, 9th Annual California ALS Research Network Meeting, Irvine, CA, January 11, 2019

•Presenter, Obviousness of Antibodies and Other Biologics, American Intellectual Property Law Association, Webinar, September 19, 2018

•Presenter, Cannabis 102: Intellectual Property, Trademark and Branding, and Marketing, The Duane Morris Cannabis Webinar Series, February 27, 2018 ( video playback )

•Speaker, Is it Easier to Win a Nobel Prize than to Obtain a patent: Impact of Patent Developments on Biomarker IP, AACC Philadelphia Local Section Symposium, San Diego, July 30, 2017
•Moderator, Intellectual Property, Licensing, & Regulatory Considerations for Emerging Technologies, AIPLA Webinar, October 4, 2016
•Panelist: Mars 101-International and Interplanetary Considerations for GMOs: Patents, Export control, Biodiversity and Regulation, AIPLA Spring Meeting, Minneapolis, May 18, 2016
•Co-moderated, Whether to Pursue Enforcement of Patents Before the ITC and/or District Court, and Preparing for PTAB Challenges to Pre-AIA and Post-AIA Patents, AIPLA Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C., October 2015
•Speaker, Biosimilars Latest Intellectual Property and FDA Issues, San Diego Intellectual Property Law Association Meeting, San Diego, February 26, 2015
•Panelist, Global Patent and Product Liability Challenges, 17th Annual FDA-OCRA Educational Conference, Irvine, California, June 4, 2014
•Speaker, Cabilly III and Other Notable Antibody Patents, IBC 23rd Antibody Engineering and 10th Antibody Therapeutics Conferences, San Diego, December 2, 2012
•Speaker, Paragraph IV Disputes and Litigation: Federal Court, PTO Proceedings & ITC Actions, ACI Hatch-Waxman Boot Camp, San Diego, June 26, 2012
•Speaker, How the Dynamics of Biosimilars Are Changing the Hatch-Waxman Landscape American Conference Institute's Hatch-Waxman Boot Camp, San Diego, June 25, 2012
•Speaker, An In-Depth Look at 180-Day Exclusivity, ACI Hatch-Waxman Boot Camp, San Diego, July 19, 2011
•Speaker, 180-Day Exclusivity, ACI Hatch-Waxman Boot Camp, San Diego, May 25, 2010
•Panelist, Intellectual Property Management & Technology Licensing, NanoEquity Asia 2008, Singapore, May 28-29, 2008
•Panelist, Nanotech IP and Licensing, NanoBioNexus, April 2007
•Chaired Panel Discussion, From Bench to Bench Chemistry and the Law Session, ACS Meeting, San Francisco, September 2006
•Chaired Panel Discussion, The Convergence of IT and Biotechnology, FWE Meeting, September 2002
•Chaired Panel Discussion, The Status of Nanotechnology, Nanotech Venture Fair, September 2002
•Panelist, Patented Medicines: Bringing Life-Saving Drugs to the Developing World, April 19, 2002