IP Counsel, Life Sciences Patents

About Anthropic Anthropic’s mission is to create reliable, interpretable, and steerable AI systems. We want AI to be safe and beneficial for our users and for society as a whole. Our team is a quickly growing group of committed researchers, engineers, policy experts, and business leaders working together to build beneficial AI systems. About the role AI has the power to dramatically accelerate the pace of scientific discovery and the development of healthcare interventions. Alongside the models and tools we build for scientists, Anthropic’s life science research teams now run their own wet lab experiments. We’re hiring a life sciences patent counsel to work side-by-side with our researchers as they work to advance biomedical progress. You will manage patent strategy and filings for our life sciences research, from the first conversation with a scientist through global prosecution. You will also be our in-house expert on the patent questions, many of them new, that arise when scientists use AI as a research tool. You will partner closely with our patents lead (direct manager), the Head of IP, Research Legal, our Life Sciences Counsel, and outside counsel to design and implement a patent program that supports our researchers and partners and is aligned with the company’s mission. Responsibilities • Manage patent strategy and filings for Anthropic’s life sciences research in the U.S. and internationally, including invention harvesting, filing decisions, drafting oversight, prosecution, and management of outside counsel • Serve as the trusted patent advisor to our life science research teams, and design and implement scalable guidance and processes to support our fast-growing life science efforts • Make inventorship determinations for AI-assisted research, and advise on inventor declarations and the duty of candor • Develop claim and filing strategies across biological and chemical inventions, platform technologies, and computational methods, accounting for written description, enablement, eligibility, and obviousness • Partner with Research Legal and Communications on the timing of publications, preprints, presentations, and open-source releases • Advise on the patent aspects of agreements with life science and biopharma counterparties, including ownership of inventions and improvements, and support patent diligence and freedom-to-operate analyses for our research • Anticipate emerging legal developments affecting AI technologies in the life science and biopharma space and provide strategic guidance to leadership Minimum qualifications • Hold a law degree (JD, LLB, or equivalent) and meet the local licensing requirements to work as in-house counsel where you'll be based • A degree or equivalent training in a life sciences or chemistry field (for example, molecular biology, biochemistry, genetics, bioengineering, or organic chemistry) • Substantial hands-on experience drafting and prosecuting U.S. life sciences patent applications, and directing foreign prosecution through local counsel • Lead responsibility for a patent portfolio, including managing budget and outside or foreign counsel • Experience making inventorship determinations and resolving ownership questions in multi-party research arrangements (for example, with universities and other partners) • Excellent communication skills, with the ability to translate legal risk into practical guidance for scientists, researchers, and business partners • A low-ego, high-empathy orientation and a “doer” attitude: willing to roll up your sleeves and pitch in where needed • Intense curiosity about AI and science, and a commitment to responsible AI development Preferred qualifications • 10+ years of patent experience (including time as a patent agent, technical spec