Catherine M. Polizzi

Polizzi counsels pharmaceutical and technology firms ranging from startups to some of the country’s largest biotechnology companies.

Explaining she works with a number of interesting, complex technology companies that are on the “forefront of medicine,” Polizzi said her practice “hops, skips and jumps all over the place.”

She helps these companies through the process of obtaining patents and providing strategic, effective portfolio counseling and management. She also offers strategic advice surrounding freedom of operation and other forms of IP assessment.

One biotechnology corporation that turns to Polizzi for strategic patent counseling and prosecution services is Genentech Inc. She helps the company develop strategy for its multibillion-dollar portfolios, including cancer drugs Kadcyla, Perjeta, Gazyva and Tecentriq.

“On every level there’s complexity,” Polizzi said of her area of law. “Because of that, the deeper you can understand it, the better you can be in terms of translating these developments into IP and that’s what’s critical here.”

Polizzi has led several matters that have allowed Genentech to obtain critical and valuable patent term extensions for its key drugs.

In August, U.S. District Judge Beth Labson Freeman of San Jose ruled in favor of Morrison & Foerster on behalf of Genentech, granting attorney fees in a long-winding patent infringement case brought by Phigenix over Kadcyla. This was shortly after the firm obtained dismissal on summary judgment in August 2017, with a finding of no induced infringement, and Morrison & Foerster arguing for the exceptional case fees in March 2018.

Polizzi was a vital member of the team throughout the four year case. She guided the legal and technical arguments that helped secure the firm’s victory. Phigenix Inc. v. Genentech Inc., 15-01238 (N.D. Cal., filed March 17, 2015).

Admitting she didn’t always want to be a lawyer, Polizzi said, “I was very much into science.”

The attorney first got a master’s degree in chemistry, then a Ph.D. in molecular biology and biochemistry.

“Toward the end of that tenure of getting my Ph.D., I started hearing about an area of law that had a great need for scientific depth,” Polizzi said. “I wouldn’t have been interested in law by itself — it’s the science and technology that enlivens it for me.”

— Skylar Dubelko