Dr. Bill Christiansen

A partner in Goodwin’s Life Sciences group, Bill advises pharmaceutical, biotechnology, clean energy and medical device companies, as well as universities, non-profit research institutions and investors, with respect to complex intellectual property matters and market exclusivity strategies.

Bill specializes in patent matters, with particular emphasis on worldwide patent procurement, strategic management of patent portfolios, investment due diligence, early stage company counseling, competitive patent position analysis, and intellectual property value creation. He also advises litigation teams on technical and patent specific issues.

In addition to emphasizing a cost-effective yet dynamic intellectual property portfolio approach for his clients, Bill provides counseling to assist clients in leveraging their patent estates as true business assets consistent with their business goals. He regularly counsels both national and international clients with regard to freedom to operate opinions, invalidity and non-infringement opinions, due diligence transactions, oppositions, and reexamination proceedings. Bill has extensive experience in a variety of technologies, including biology-based clean energy, small molecule therapeutics, immunology, gene therapy, stem cell therapeutics, formulations, re-formulations, drug delivery, RNAi, miRNA, antisense, gene regulation, epigenetics, diagnostics, diagnostic and therapeutic polypeptides, polynucleotides, and antibodies, vaccines, genomics, and bioinformatics.

Bill has published many legal and scientific articles, has extensive teaching and research experience, and has presented regularly at both legal and scientific conferences. He is recognized as a leading patent lawyer by several prominent legal directories, including Best Lawyers, Chambers, IAM Patent 1000, LMG Life Sciences and Super Lawyers. As noted by Chambers, clients state that "Bill offers excellent strategic advice and great client communication," and "In addition to being a seasoned attorney, Bill is an accomplished scientist, which enables a very high level of sophistication in his analyses and strategic guidance."

Bill is admitted only in Washington State.

Bill is also registered to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

Bill’s recent representative experience includes:

• Advising the underwriters of Aardvark Therapeutics, a phase 3 biotech company developing novel small-molecule therapies for metabolic diseases, in connection with Aardvark’s $94.2 million initial public offering (IPO)*
• Advising Takara Bio, a global biotechnology and life sciences company headquartered in Shiga, Japan, on its acquisition of Curio Bioscience, a pioneering company in the field of spatial genomics*
• Advising Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals, one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in China, on its licensing of global rights (excluding Greater China) for the development, production and commercialization of three of its proprietary glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) drugs to Hercules CM Newco, a newly established Delaware company*
• Advising ARCH Venture Partners, which co-led a $1 billion Series A funding round in Xaira Therapeutics*
• Advising Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals on its strategic collaboration and exclusive worldwide (excluding mainland China) license agreement with Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany and global license agreement (excluding the Greater China region and Korea) with Elevar Therapeutics*
• Advising J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, BofA Securities and TD Cowen, representatives of the several underwriters, in the $1.27 billion follow-on offering by argenx SE, a global immunology company*

*Denotes experience prior to joining Goodwin

• American Bar Association (ABA)
• Licensing Executives Society
• Washington Biotechnology and Biomedical Association
• Washington State Patent Law Association
• American Intellectual Property Law Association

Prior to joining Goodwin, Bill was a partner at Cooley LLP. Previously, he was a partner in the biotechnology and chemistry practice group at Seed Intellectual Property Law Group PLLC.

• Best Lawyers: Top lawyer for life sciences and patent law
• Chambers USA: Intellectual Property – Washington (2021 – 2024)
• IAM Patent 1000: Top patent practitioner
• LMG Life Sciences: Leading life sciences patent lawyer
• Super Lawyers: Top 40 Washington IP Lawyer