Looking around corners for patent pitfalls and opportunities 

Tammy VanHeyningen, Ph.D., has a practice that includes all areas of intellectual property (IP) counseling, with a focus on domestic and international patent prosecution. With more than 10 years of experience as a research scientist in the fields of microbiology, immunology and mechanisms of disease, her technology concentrations are in biotechnology, biologics and pharmaceuticals, including:

• Vaccines, antibodies, protein therapeutics, gene therapy compositions, gene editing, cell and tissue cultures, including tissue replacement or regeneration, small molecule or biologic pharmaceuticals
• Plant patents, plant utility applications and plant variety protection
• Medical diagnostics, including genomic or proteomic markers predictive of therapeutic response, prognosis or metastases and biologic assays
• Drug delivery methods

Tammy brings an inventor’s mindset to the patent counsel she provides to clients, thinking forward to imagine how development of technologies will define the trajectory of patent protection as well as the commercialization that protection makes possible.

Tammy’s doctoral thesis research was directed to understanding the T cell and macrophage mediated immune response to mycobacteria. She also completed post-doctoral research developing a transgenic mouse model and recombinant herpes simplex viruses to investigate viral latency and reactivation. She taught college-level courses in virology, genetics and molecular biology.

Tammy is recognized in the IAM Patent 1000 as a top patent practitioner in Wisconsin.

Bar Admissions

• Wisconsin

Education

• Kalamazoo College (B.A., cum laude, 1991)
  • Biology
  • Departmental Honors
  • Diebold Award
  • Phi Beta Kappa

• Washington University in St. Louis School of Law (J.D., 2005)
  • Giles Sutherland Rich Memorial Moot Court Competition, Midwest, winner (2004)
  • Global Studies Law Review, primary editor
  • Judge Samuel M. Breckinridge Practice Court Prize, recipient
  • CALI Excellence Award in Patent Drafting, Copyright Law, Pre-Trial Practice and Biodiversity and the Protection of Traditional Knowledge

• Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis (Ph.D., 1997)
  • Molecular Microbiology, Microbial Pathogenesis
  • Thesis title: Modulation of macrophage function and T cell responsiveness by mycobacterial infection
  • Young Scientist Program, microbiology high school curriculum course developer
  • Women in Science Day

• "Adherence and fibronectin binding are environmentally regulated in the group A streptococci,"
• "America Invents Act: A First Look At First-to-File for Inventors,"
• "Construction and characterization of bacterial artificial chromosomes containing HSV-1 strains 17 and KOS,"
• "District Court Finds Isolated DNA Claims to be Unpatentable as Non-Statutory Subject Matter,"
• "IL-6 produced by macrophages infected with Mycobacterium species suppresses T cell responses,"
• "In re Kubin: Federal Circuit finds claims to an isolated nucleic acid Obvious,"
• "Intellectual Property Strategies for Small Companies,"
• "Inventions from Nuts to “Supes”: University Technology Transfer After the America Invents Act: Supreme Court and Congressional Meddling,"
• "Is the Federal Circuit Playing with Fire? Prometheus Provides Insight on Adapting Diagnostics Claims to Satisfy the Bilski Test,"
• "Pitfalls in Protecting the Seed of Invention in Plant Patents,"
• "The virion host shutoff protein of herpes simplex virus type 1 has RNA degradation activity in primary neurons,"
• Supreme Court Rules Amgen Cannot Monopolize Class of Antibodies Based On Function

Seminar

• Lasting Impacts of COVID Shutdowns on Tech Transfer