Lisa Thorne

Lisa Thorne is a lawyer and patent agent in Gowling WLG's Vancouver office, practising in the firm's Intellectual Property and Life Sciences groups. She is also registered to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Lisa works with clients ranging from small startups to large multi-national corporations. She also liaises with foreign associates to assist them with procuring Canadian intellectual property rights for their clients.

With a practice that focuses on patent drafting and prosecution in the areas of biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, cleantech, materials science, chemical engineering, nanotechnology and chemistry, Lisa also regularly prepares patent validity and infringement opinions and represents clients in respect of their intellectual property transactions, including licenses, acquisitions and research and development agreements.

Lisa provides clients with a product-driven approach to the protection of their IP assets worldwide. She has managed global IP portfolios, and prepared opinions that have formed an integral part of the investment due diligence conducted by many companies regarding acquisitions and transactions, and in allocating corporate resources.

Lisa has also assisted clients in evaluating the patent "landscape" of a particular field in order to identify a strategic basis on which to direct their research initiatives and investment, and to identify potential licensing and revenue opportunities.

Prior to joining Gowling WLG, Lisa spent over eight years at a national intellectual property boutique firm.

She received the Queen's University Medal for the highest standing in undergraduate chemistry, as well as postgraduate and undergraduate scholarships from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, among other awards.

In addition to her postgraduate research in chemistry, Lisa completed a 12-month internship in the corporate research and development department of a multi-national chemical company in the field of polymeric materials. She also completed a portion of her law school studies at the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.

Lisa was a 2017 and 2018 participant in the Ride to Conquer Cancer, British Columbia's largest cycling fundraiser for the B.C. Cancer Foundation. She also acted as captain of Gowling WLG's 2018 team. She is a past volunteer with the "Roots of Empathy" program, created to increase emotional competence and empathy among young children.