Areas of practice
Sherry Yao specialises in intellectual property litigation, with a focus on patent invalidation and patent litigation in relation to pharmaceutical and medical devices. Ms. Yao is also proficient in advising on IP-related transactions. Her clients include well-known domestic and foreign companies across fields such as pharmaceutical, medical devices, and electronic communications.
Ms. Yao has years of experience in scientific research with a solid technical background in pharmaceutical related fields. In the past 14 years of practice, she has been focusing on IP matters in the pharmaceutical industry. Especially when practicing in the United States, she has handled a number of patent litigation cases under the drug patent linkage system.
She has represented multinational companies and Chinese companies in a wide range of matters, including:
- Represented Boehringer Ingelheim in civil and administrative actions related to the patent infringement of a chemical generic drug
- Represented Astellas in patent infringement actions against generic drug manufacturers, using court decisions to prevent such manufacturers from submitting drug applications to the National Medical Products Administration
- Represented Aptalis Pharma in several patent infringement cases concerning CANASA®
- Represented Celgene Corporation in a series of patent infringement cases concerning Focalin®, Focalin XR®, Ritalin LA® and CANASA®
- Represented Hologic in its patent license disputes with Antu Molecular Diagnosis Company
- Represented a US tech company in its patent infringement and antitrust disputes with Qualcomm Inc. and its affiliates
- Represented Polo Ralph Lauren in its trademark infringement disputes with several Chinese generic drug manufacturers
- She has provided domestic and foreign pharmaceutical companies on IP-related advice of transactions and other counselling services, covering technology licensing, patent transfer, patentability assessment, patent application, and FTO analysis.
Work experience
Ms. Yao joined King & Wood Mallesons (KWM) in 2022. Before joining KWM, she worked at several domestic and foreign law firms.
Ms. Yao received a bachelor’s degree in Biology from East China Normal University, and a Ph.D. degree in Biochemistry and a J.D. from the University of Iowa and the Loyola Law School, Loyola Marymount University respectively.
She is admitted to practice in California and has been registered to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Her working languages are Chinese and English.
