PIUG Biotech 2023 - Plenary

14

PIUG 2023 Biotechnology Conference

 A F T E R N O O N S P E A K E R S

Prior Art Searching in Cellular and Peptide Therapy Julie Wu, United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) 1:30 – 2:00 pm

 ABSTRACT Prior art searching is a critical part of patent examination to ensure that the best available prior art is considered during examination. Applying the best available prior art leads to high quality patents with claims that clearly define the prior art and promote innovation. Searching in cellular and peptide vaccines and cellular therapy areas is similar to searching in other patent areas. Based on the broadest reasonable interpretation of the claims, patent examiners design search strategies, including text and classification, to search multiple non-patent and patent literature databases for prior art. Sequence searches using an internal United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) sequence database are performed when needed. Overall, every application is thoroughly searched to find the best available prior art and to determine the level of skill in the art so that the examiner can make informed patentability determinations.  BIOGRAPHY Julie Wu received her B.S. in Pharmacology from SUNY Stony Brook in 1999, Ph.D. in Pharmacology from Yale University in 2004, and completed her postdoctoral training at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). She joined the USPTO in 2012 as a patent examiner, where she examined patent applications on immunotherapy for cancer, recombinant antibody, and CRISPR gene editing. In 2019, she was promoted to Supervisory Patent Examiner in the technology area of immunotherapy for cancer and recombinant antibody.