Tanya Heare-Rowlands

Tanya is a chartered and European patent attorney and also a European patent litigator. Previously a partner at a respected patent and trademark firm, Tanya brings extensive experience in patents and applications in the life sciences field to Cooley’s London team. 

As well as drafting and prosecuting British, European and international patent applications, Tanya manages patent portfolios around the globe, working closely with a network of overseas lawyers. She also advises on opposition and appeal matters and due diligence matters and provides opinions on patentability, validity and freedom to operate. Tanya has an excellent track record in oral proceedings at the European Patent Office, having successfully represented her clients before the Examining and Opposition Divisions and the Boards of Appeal on a variety of matters.

Tanya has worked with a number of well-known companies – from small startups, academic institutions and universities through medium-sized pharmaceutical companies and large multinationals. She works closely with her clients to understand their commercial objectives and maximise the value in their intellectual property.

Tanya’s particular areas of interest are in the fields of pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, including biochemistry, molecular biology, immunology and genetics, along with medical devices. She has worked on patent matters for a vast array of technologies, including nucleic acid sequencing technologies, molecular markers (for diagnostic, detection and screening programmes), immunotherapeutics (particularly for treating cancer and inflammatory disorders), antibodies, peptide- and protein-based vaccines, stem cells, biological assays, formulation technology (particularly for inhalation and oral and topical use), exosomes and nanoparticles (particularly for the delivery of therapeutic agents), agritech (particularly, genetically modified crops), food products and processing (particularly, health foods), filter technology, packaging technology, wound dressings, ostomy appliances, orthopaedic implants, compression devices, smart joint implant sensors and handheld surgical tools.

Tanya has a special interest in the patenting of precision medicines and has produced a variety of articles and seminars on the subject.

Tanya’s recent representative experience includes:

• Advising clients in contentious matters, both offensive and defensive, at the European Patent Office; for example, Tanya acts as European counsel for a global gene-sequencing company and has successfully defended many European patents on its behalf
• Advising clients in coordinated litigation against key competitors in Europe, with significant commercial impact
• Growing a portfolio of life sciences spinouts in both the UK and continental Europe, regularly advising them on patent matters that are key to emerging companies
• Managing and progressing large portfolios of cases with global reach, having previously acted for a dominant multinational in this regard
• Advising clients, including high-profile large pharma, on patent portfolios that are complex from a technology and/or patent perspective
• 30+ opposition matters handled, with an 80% success rate at oral proceedings
• 10+ appeal matters handled, with a 75% success rate at oral proceedings

Tanya’s background is in biochemistry, and she has a keen interest in human biochemistry in health and disease. Her undergraduate studies at the University of Liverpool involved a year of research in the protein chemistry division at British Biotech in Oxford, working on a novel thrombolytic agent, as well as an honours project based upon the development of a neuronal cell model of Alzheimer’s disease. Her degree also covered aspects of molecular biology, genetics, biotechnology, immunology, cell biology and physiology, and she graduated with a first-class honours degree and two scholarships for excellence.

Tanya subsequently gained a DPhil from the University of Oxford, where her research involved the biochemical and physiological characterisation of the cardiac, vascular and nervous systems in Fabry disease (a genetic disorder of glycolipid metabolism) and treatment of the disease using substrate reduction therapy (small molecular inhibitors). Tanya therefore has a broad – but high-level – technical knowledge that she can readily rely upon when working on patents and applications in the life sciences field.

Speaking engagements

• Presenter, ‘European Patent Office Prosecution and Management Best Practices’, 23rd Annual Berkeley-Stanford Advanced Patent Law Institute, Stanford University, December 2022
• Presenter, ‘Patenting Precision Medicines at the European Patent Office’, The Third Precision Medicine Congress, London, September 2016
• Presenter, ‘Patenting Personalised Medicine Inventions’, One Nucleus Life Science Leadership Series: Personalised Medicine, Cambridge, May 2013

Select publications

• Author, ‘Patenting Personalized Medicines’, Pharmacology Matters (Volume 6, Issue 3), December 2013