Overview
Tianran Yan is a partner and intellectual property lawyer with Foley & Lardner LLP. He serves as the vice chair of the firm’s Chemical, Biotechnology & Pharmaceutical Practice and is a member of the Life Sciences Industry Team.
Experience
Tianran has extensive experience in assisting clients with worldwide IP strategies. His practice focuses on patent prosecution and counseling, due diligence investigation, patent portfolio management, patent enforcement and licensing, freedom-to-operate investigation and patent validity and infringement analyses. He has represented clients in a broad spectrum of technologies, including CRISPR genome editing, liquid biopsy, next-generation sequencing (NGS), bispecific and multispecific antibodies, proteolysis targeting chimeras (PROTACs), single-cell sequencing and analysis, engineered cell therapy, and regenerative medicine.
One particular area of Tianran’s patent practice is post-grant proceedings. He has successfully represented clients in patent reexamination, reissue and inter partes review (IPR) proceedings.
Tianran has also represented clients in IP due diligence investigation of technology companies. He has performed due diligence reviews for IP licenses, IP portfolio sales, corporate financing, investments, mergers and acquisitions. Tianran has co-authored Due Diligence for Intellectual Property: Valuing Assets in a Transaction, Chapter 2: Patents (Law Journal Press, 2014).
Tianran has extensive experience counseling Asian technology companies on strategic IP development and transactions in connection with their operation in the U.S. market. Tianran is a native speaker of Mandarin.
Recognition
Tianran has been recognized as a Next Generation Lawyer for patent prosecution (including re-examination and post-grant proceedings) by The Legal 500, which notes the top up-and-coming lawyers nationwide.
Education
Tianran earned his law degree from the Chicago-Kent College of Law (J.D., 2009), where he was an editor of the Chicago-Kent Law Review. Tianran earned his master’s degree in biochemistry (M.S., 2006) from University of Illinois at Chicago, College of Medicine, and his bachelor’s degree (B.S., 2004) from Sun Yat-Sen University.
Admissions
Tianran is admitted to practice in Illinois and the District of Columbia and before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Select Publications and Presentations
- “Delivery of Cell, RNA and DNA Therapeutics - Surveying the Business and IP Landscape,” Foley Webinar (May 2021)
- “Navigating the CRISPR Patent Landscape and Business Impact,” Foley Webinar (June 2016)
- “Healthcare & Biotechnology,” US-China Innovation and Investment Summit (May 2016)
- “Due Diligence for Intellectual Property: Valuing Assets in a Transaction,” Law Journal Press (2014)