As the President and Founder of Hanol Intellectual Property & Law, Dr. Son is in charge of leading the firm toward its goal of becoming Korea’s leading independent law firm that specializes in IP. Motivated by her entrepreneurial spirit, she started the firm in 2001. Since then, Hanol has achieved the ‘Best in Class’ status in the fields of life science and chemistry. She continues to make key managerial decisions that shape Hanol's continued growth in all fields of patent prosecution.

 

With a Ph.D. in biochemistry, Dr. Son maintains a practice focused on preparing patent specifications, prosecuting patent applications before KIPO, and managing international patent portfolios for biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. Due diligence, licensing, patentability, infringement, and pre-litigation matters are all consulted with a client in a professional environment. Consultation is done with a high degree of patience by taking into account of the client’s personal level of understanding of IP law in order to manage and meet their reasonable expectations. Strategic planning is vital in helping the client to realize and aim for the bigger picture for a long-term success. As such, Dr. Son strives to ensure that the client’s IP strategy will help the client achieve and realize its commercial goals and desired outcomes.

 

Prior to establishing and founding Hanol, Dr. Son was a patent attorney at a leading law firm in Seoul. She also worked as a patent examiner for the Korean Intellectual Property Office (“KIPO”) in the fields of biotechnology, organic, and inorganic chemistry and contributed to the preparation of the Examination Guidelines for Biotechnology Inventions. Her in-depth and extensive knowledge of IP law from both the perspective of the patent attorney and of the patent examiner led to her selection as a representative of Korea in international forums organized by the OECD.

 

Dr. Son is also a Presidential Committee member on the National Science & Technology Affiliation. She is also a Committee member for Bio Medical Technology Development of Ministry of Science, ICT, and Future Planning (“MSIP”). She is also a Committee member on Global Frontier Research Development section of MSIP. She is also on the Advisory Board of Policy-making on Biotechnology. Finally, Dr. Son is an Advisory Committee member of Foundation of Agriculture Technology Commercialization & Transfer.

 

Legal Areas of Emphasis

Patent, Trademark, Design

Prosecution, Litigation, and Licensing

 

Technical Areas of Emphasis

Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals,

Life Science and Biotechnology

Chemistry and Chemical Engineering

Medical Device and Business Method

Trademark and Design

Plant Variety Protection

 

Education

Yonsei University (B.S. Biochemistry)

University of Wisconsin-Madison (Ph.D. Biochemistry)

Yonsei Medical School (Senior Executives Course, Medicine & Law)

Santa Clara University-Seoul National University (Joint LLM Program)

 

Admissions/Qualifications

Admitted to the patent bar in Korea

Registered to practice before the Korean Intellectual Property Office

 

Language

Korean, English

 

Memberships

Korean Patent Attorneys Association

Asian Patent Attorneys Association

Licensing Executives Society

American Intellectual Property Law Association

International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property