Ginkgo Bioworks Appoints Claire Laporte as New Head of Intellectual Property

With extensive patent litigation experience in the biotech industry, Laporte will design and execute Ginkgo's intellectual property strategy

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Ginkgo Bioworks

Jul 19, 2018, 09:00 ET

BOSTON, July 19, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Ginkgo Bioworks, the organism company, today announced Claire Laporte as Ginkgo's new head of intellectual property. Laporte comes to Ginkgo with nearly 30 years of experience in commercial litigation, biotechnology patent litigation, and strategic intellectual property advising. In her new role, she'll design and oversee Ginkgo's intellectual property strategy.

Laporte will focus on the protection of Ginkgo's proprietary technology, as well as designing a nuanced strategy for intellectual property protection in biotechnology collaborations. Laporte's expertise will add value not only to Ginkgo and its platform technologies but also to its collaboration partners, which are developing a diverse range of products for industries from food to pharmaceuticals.

Laporte joins Ginkgo from Foley Hoag LLP where she spent 27 years handling patent and trade secret cases relating to a broad range of life science technologies for startups and large biotech companies alike. Laporte has represented various clients regarding their intellectual property in mergers, acquisitions, licenses, and collaborations, as well as providing strategic patent portfolio counseling. Her notable litigation experience in the chemical biotechnology and enzymes space includes the successful invalidation of key patents for major feed ingredients. She also litigated patent cases in the biopharma space, where she defended several monoclonal antibody therapeutics against charges of infringement.

During Laporte's career at Foley Hoag, she also focused on civil rights and domestic violence litigation, bringing several major cases concerning marriage equality and a still-pending case challenging President Trump's ban on military service by transgender people.

"From our new agtech company, Joyn Bio, to exciting new partnerships in the defense space, we're bringing biology to a host of new industries and expanding our foundry capabilities. Claire has an incredibly strong background in patent protection in this space and is committed to our vision of the power of biotechnology," said Jason Kelly, CEO and co-founder of Ginkgo Bioworks. "IP strategy for biotech is an incredibly nuanced area, and Claire is exactly who we need on our team as we continue to grow."

"The synthetic biology industry has huge potential to do a lot of good in contributing to the broader world and I'm fascinated by the breadth of problems that Ginkgo is helping to solve," said Claire Laporte, head of intellectual property at Ginkgo Bioworks. "So many biotech companies focus on a single project, while Ginkgo has created a platform that empowers others to tackle a myriad of global issues. It's an exciting challenge ahead."

About Ginkgo Bioworks
Headquartered in Boston, Ginkgo Bioworks uses the most advanced technology on the planet—biology—to grow products instead of manufacture them. The company's technology platform is bringing biotechnology into a wide range of new markets, enabling fragrance, beauty, food and health companies to make better products. For more information, visit www.ginkgobioworks.com.

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SOURCE Ginkgo Bioworks