Robert M. Yeh

robert.yeh@lw.com

+1.858.523.5469

Life Sciences Licensing

Profile

Dr. Robert (Rob) Yeh advises companies and their investors in the life sciences space, with a focus on intellectual property issues that are essential to their success at all stages of their life cycle.

Rob draws on his extensive experience as a former scientist and patent litigator to guide clients on matters in:

Complex licensing and collaboration transactions
Joint ventures, co-promotion, co-marketing, and co-commercialization deals
Mergers and acquisitions, spinouts, restructuring, and related ancillary agreements
Services, supply, manufacturing, distribution, and other commercial agreements
Private and public financing, including initial public offerings (IPO), follow-on offerings, royalty purchase, and debt issuances

He often represents buyers, sellers, investment banks, and other financial institutions in performing IP due diligence in connection with private and public financings as well as mergers and acquisitions.

Rob is registered to practice before the US Patent and Trademark Office. Before joining Latham, he developed substantial experience in patent litigation and patent prosecution and counseling, including representing multinational and startup companies in patent litigation in the pharmaceutical and life sciences sectors.

Rob earned a PhD at UC Berkeley in chemistry for his work in Dr. Kenneth Raymond’s laboratory on supramolecular nano-cages. He held a postdoctoral research position at The Scripps Research Institute where he developed VLPs for drug delivery. He was a research scientist at a multinational medical diagnostics company, where he focused on bioconjugation and macromolecular therapeutics and imaging agents (MRI and PET).

A recognized thought leader in the space, Rob is a named co-inventor on a US patent and a co-author of 10 peer-reviewed scientific publications.

Experience

Rob’s experience includes representing:

Transactions

Sanofi in its COVID-19 vaccine collaboration with Novavax
Parvus Therapeutics in its nanomedicine collaboration with AbbVie
Sonoma Biotherapeutics in its Treg cell collaboration with Regeneron
Zentalis in its ADC licensing and asset sale to Immunome
Astellas in its ADC co-development and commercialization transaction with Adaptimmune
Grail in its acquisition by Illumina and subsequent separation from Illumina
Prometheus in its acquisition by Merck
Nestlé in its:
- Investment in Before Brands
- Acquisition of a majority stake in Vital Proteins
Aduro Biotech in its merger with Chinook Therapeutics.
Harmony Biosciences in its IPO
Phathom Pharmaceuticals in its IPO
Inari Medical in its IPO
Other transactions and material agreements for numerous clients, including:
- Mereo Biopharma
- Ligand Pharmaceuticals
- Prometheus Laboratories
- Evoke Pharma
- Aligos Therapeutics
- Swedish Orphan Biovitrum (SOBI)
- Zentalis Pharmaceuticals
- PharmaPier
- Wonder Group
- Tyra Biosciences
Underwriter representation in various IPOs and other offerings, including for:
- Goldman Sachs
- JP Morgan
- Morgan Stanley
- Bank of America
- SVB Leerink
- Jefferies
- Evercore
- Cantor Fitzgerald

Patent Prosecution and Counseling

Patent prosecution and counseling and freedom-to-operate analysis relating to medical devices, pharmaceuticals, energy, and exercise equipment for academic institutions, startups, and Fortune 500 companies*

Patent Litigation

GSK v. Teva in the induced infringement “skinny label” case concerning heart failure treatment in D. Del.*
NuVasive in a patent infringement case concerning spine surgery in S.D. Cal.*
Illumina in various cases concerning DNA sequencing and microarray technology in S.D. Cal. and D. Del.*
Allergan in various cases concerning eye medication and dermal fillers in E.D. Tex. and C.D. Cal.*
Apple v. Qualcomm in various cases in S.D. Cal. concerning iPhones.*
Microsoft in patent infringement case in D. Utah*
Huawei in two patent infringement cases in S.D. Cal.*

*Matters handled prior to joining Latham

Thought Leadership

“Precedential Decisions at the PTAB: An Endangered Species?” Chicago-Kent Journal of Intellectual Property, Volume 17, 2018
“The Public Paid for the Invention: Who Owns It?” Berkeley Technology Law Journal, 2012 Annual Review, Volume 27
“A Most Peculiar Application of the False Claims Act” Spring 2013 Newsletter, The Federal Bar Association, San Diego Chapter

Scientific Publications

“Imposition of chirality in a dinuclear triple-stranded helicate by ion pair formation.” Inorganic Chemistry 40 (10), 2001, 2216-2217
“Self-assembly of tetrahedral and trigonal antiprismatic clusters Fe-4(L-4)(4) and Fe-6(L-5)(6) on the basis of trigonal tris-bidentate chelators.” Chemistry-a European Journal 8 (2), 2002, 493-497
“Supramolecular assembly dynamics.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 99 (8), 2002, 4793-4796
“Self-Assembly.” Comprehensive Coordination Chemistry II, Elsevier, 2003 Chapter 6.3.2
“Large M4L4 (M = Al(III), Ga(III), In(III), Ti(IV)) tetrahedral coordination cages: an extension of symmetry-based design.” Inorganic Chemistry 44 (18), 2005, 6228-6239
“Supramolecular asymmetric induction in dinuclear triple stranded helicates.” Inorganic Chemistry 45 (3), 2006, 1130-1139
“Virus based nanoparticle as a platform for magnetic resonance imaging contrast enhancement.” Chemical Communications 12, 2007, 1269-1271
“Toxicology and pharmacokinetics of wild-type cowpea mosaic virus.” Journal of Controlled Release 120 (1), 2007, 41-50
“Folate mediated targeting of cowpea mosaic virus to tumor cells.” Chemistry and Biology, (14), 2007, 1152-1162
“Design and formation of a large, supramolecular cluster using 1,1′-binaphthyl ligands.” Angewandte Chemie International Edition (47), 2008, 6062-6064

Qualifications

Bar Qualification

California
US Patent and Trademark Office

Education

JD, University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, 2012
Certificate of Specialization in Business Law
PhD, University of California, Berkeley, 2004
AB, Princeton University, 1998
with honors