Gregory M. Zinkl

Senior Counsel Specialist, Assistant General Counsel @ Genentech

About

[please see note] I am passionate about impacting people, especially patients, using my scientific expertise intertwined with my analytical skills: practicing intellectual property in biotechnology; practicing in house especially gives me that opportunity. I am currently Senior Patent Counsel Specialist at Genentech, building on a background that includes Patent Counsel for Amgen. My in-house journey in intellectual property law began at Chromatin, Inc., a pioneering start-up in plant mini-chromosome technology. There, I not only provided IP and corporate counsel but also launched and directed a legal intern program. Before my tenure in the corporate world, I honed my skills at various law firms, where I had the privilege of collaborating with a diverse array of clients and IP practitioners, delving into a broad spectrum of technologies. Outside the office, I am equally committed to make meaningful contributions to the community while pursuing some of my personal interests. Moving to San Francisco from Chicago, I have embraced new opportunities for civic engagement. I am proud to be a board member of the San Francisco Civic Music Association and to serve on the Bay Area Leadership Council for Lambda Legal. My love of classical music performance remains strong with my continued affiliation with the Chicago-based Lakeview Orchestra, an organization I am proud to have helped found. Additionally, I am dedicated to mental health awareness and de-stigmatization. I am a trained speaker/advocate for the National Alliance on Mental Illness (SF), sharing personal insights with a wide variety of audiences. Note: I collaborated with a generative AI bot to revise my original summary. The bot was *very* enthusiastic, but I tempered its enthusiasm considerably.

Country

City

United States

Industry

Biotechnology

Skill

Intellectual Property, Patents, Patent Prosecution, Licensing, Trademarks, Legal Advice, Biotechnology, Registered Patent Attorney, Legal Writing, Molecular Biology, Due Diligence, Patentability, Litigation, Trade Secrets, Genetics, Invention, Patent Applications, Legal Research, Prosecution, Technology Transfer

Experience

Senior Counsel Specialist, Assistant General Counsel

Genentech

2023-10 - Present · 3 yrs

South San Francisco, CA

Senior Patent Counsel

Genentech

2019-12 - 2023-10 · 3 yrs 11 mos

South San Francisco, California

Patent attorney in biotechnology helping Genentech do what’s next for patients.

Senior Counsel

Amgen

2016-10 - 2019-12 · 3 yrs 3 mos

South San Francisco

Of Counsel

Lathrop Gage

2015-1 - 2016-9 · 1 yr 9 mos

Chicago, IL

•Drafting and filing patent applications in a wide variety of biological arts •Prosecuting patent applications domestically and abroad •Researching, preparing, and summarizing patent landscapes on various technologies •Supporting licensing activities

Visiting Professor

DeVry University

2015-2 - 2015-5 · 4 mos

Chicago, IL

Foundations of chemistry and biology course to undergraduates (winter 2015)

Director of Intellectual Property/Corporate Attorney

Chromatin, Inc.

2009-6 - 2014-6 · 5 yrs 1 mo

Chicago, Illinois

• Managing international patent portfolios, including all aspects of patent prosecution. • Partnering with executive leadership to devise license agreements, collaboration agreements, and alliance agreements. • Partnering with executive team to understand business plans; partnering with management to understand operations and service various agreement and human resources needs, and partnering with employees to maximize IP potential. • Assisting in and over-seeing freedom-to-operate analyses. • Conducting IP due diligence on merger/acquisition targets. • Advising on potential trade-secret misappropriation, potential tortious interference with business expectations, and potential anti-trust matters.

Associate (Patent Agent 2004-2006)

Dykema

2004-9 - 2009-6 · 4 yrs 10 mos

Chicago, Illinois

• Managing international patent portfolios, including all aspects of patent prosecution. • Preparing and prosecuting patent re-examination requests. • Supporting litigation involving inventorship, patent infringement, and know-how. • Performing patent validity analyses, and freedom-to-operate analyses. • Assisting in license advising and drafting, including licenses for know-how and patents. • Assisting in due diligence evaluations. • Assisting start-up biotechnology companies to establish intellectual property strategies and programs.

Patent Agent

SNR Denton

2002-9 - 2004-9 · 2 yrs 1 mo

Chicago, Illinois

• Managing international patent portfolios, including all aspects of patent prosecution. • Performing patent validity analyses. • Assisting in freedom-to-operate analyses, including as a member of a team for a block-buster small molecule inhibitor for a major pharmaceutical company.

Scientific Advisor/Patent Agent

Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione PC (now part of Crowell & Moring)

2000-9 - 2002-9 · 2 yrs 1 mo

Chicago, Illinois

• Managing international patent portfolios, including all aspects of patent prosecution. • Supporting IP aspects of complex litigation, including inventorship determination issues. • Advising on scientific matters, especially in the areas of biotechnology, plant and mammalian cell biology, molecular biology, plant biology, developmental biology and genetics.

Post-doctoral Fellow

University of Chicago

1997-6 - 2000-8 · 3 yrs 3 mos

Chicago, Illinois

Pollen-stigma interactions in the plant Arabidopsis thaliana Advisor: Daphne Preuss, Ph.D.

Resident Head

University of Chicago

1998-9 - 2000-6 · 1 yr 10 mos

Chicago, Illinois

Resided with undergraduates in residence hall, responsible for 40-85 residents; providing programming, support for student programming, and mentoring.