BCLT-Oregon Start-Up Series: (Session 4) Early-Stage Life Sciences Companies - IP and Trade Secret Strategies
Wednesday, October 22, 2025
Launching a life science company comes with big scientific goals—and even bigger IP challenges. Join us in this practical and engaging session, as Goodwin experts Robert Frederickson III and Olivia Uitto, PhD, walk you through how to build and protect your innovation pipeline from day one. Whether you’re navigating patents, trade secrets, or tricky commercialization timelines, this session will help you avoid early missteps and lay the legal groundwork for long-term success.
Ideal for founders, legal teams, and early-stage investors, this program offers actionable insight into how to protect your ideas and maximize future value in a complex and competitive industry.
In this session, you’ll learn how to:
- Understand the unique IP needs of life science companies
- Navigate the patent process, from application to enforcement
- Choose the right strategy: patent vs. trade secret—and how to protect both
- Avoid costly gaps in IP ownership or disclosure
- Implement trade secret safeguards
- Recognize risks from former employees, partners, or collaborators
Speaker(s):
Robert Frederickson III, Goodwin
Olivia Uitto, Goodwin
Program Series:
Are you a scientist, inventor, entrepreneur, or investor thinking about launching or working with a start-up company? Do you have questions about patents and trade secrets, regulatory requirements, consulting agreements, privacy considerations, and/or IP licensing? The Berkeley Center for Law & Technology and the University of Oregon School of Law have partnered on a new Start-Up Signature Series of virtual legal education programs, designed specifically for start-up companies and their investors. The Start-Up Signature Series will give you the education you need to successfully push your start-up forward!
Disclaimer: All views or opinions expressed by any presenter during the course of this CLE is that of the presenter alone and not an opinion of the Oklahoma Bar Association, the employers, or affiliates of the presenters unless specifically stated. Additionally, any materials, including the legal research, are the product of the individual contributor, not the Oklahoma Bar Association. The Oklahoma Bar Association makes no warranty, express or implied, relating to the accuracy or content of these materials.