Overview
Christopher Cowles advises intellectual property owners, inventors, and academic institutions across all phases of asset creation and optimizing value in biotechnology, including patent preparation and prosecution, legal opinion provision and other support in contentious patent proceedings, and deal-critical patent diligence for partnering, private and public funding rounds, and mergers and acquisitions. He has extensive experience in nucleic acid therapeutics—including both payloads and particle-based delivery modalities—as well as genomic technologies, immunotherapies, diagnostics and prognostics, personalized medicine, microbiology, virology, and cell biology. Chris routinely provides strategic intellectual property counsel to clients, advising on IP due diligence, domestic and international IP portfolio management, and preparing non-infringement, invalidity, and freedom-to-operate opinions.
Prior to joining Day Pitney, Chris was a patent attorney at several law firms and served as Director of Intellectual Property at Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, Inc. for four years. In that role, he managed, prosecuted, and expanded the company’s portfolio of RNAi-relevant patent applications through different stages of venture capital funding, strategic partnerships, collaborations, licensing, and due diligence. He was instrumental in securing broad, high-value claims protecting Dicerna’s core drug platform.
Chris is often sought out by media outlets to comment on complex patent issues, in the news, including timely discussion on court decisions, particularly those impacting the life sciences and biotech industries.
He earned his Ph.D. from the University of California, San Diego, and completed postdoctoral research in genomics at the Whitehead Institute at MIT.
Experience
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Obtained high value patent claims protecting core therapeutic and delivery modalities for various nucleic acid therapeutics clients
Performed deal-critical IP diligence upon several biotech companies spanning diverse therapeutic and diagnostic sectors, to evaluate IP risks and rewards for projected investment by a large family office client
Education and Credentials
Education
- Whitehead Institute (MIT), Damon Runyon postdoctoral fellow, Genomics
- University of California, San Diego, Ph.D., Biomedical Sciences
- Suffolk University Law School, J.D., cum laude
- Rice University, B.S., magna cum laude
Admissions
- Commonwealth of Massachusetts
- U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
Recognition and Community
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Recognitions
Chosen for inclusion in the Top Recommended List by The SPEAR’S 500, 2022 and 2023
Community Involvement
Winchester Soccer Club, Coach, 2021-Present
News & Insights
In The Media
Media Mentions
- Day Pitney Grows IP Practice With Life Sciences Patent Trio, Bloomberg Law Automation , March 5, 2024
- Day Pitney Expands Boston Office with Key Hires in Life Sciences Patent Law Practice, Legal News Feed, March 3, 2025
- Hub Hires: Freshfields, Day Pitney, Paul Hastings, Cozen, Law360, March 3, 2025
- Withers Life Sciences IP Team Joins Day Pitney In Boston, Law360, February 24, 2025