Silvia Merli

Silvia Merli is an Italian Patent Attorney and a European Patent Attorney, as well as an EUIPO professional representative for designs. She is also qualified as European Patent Litigator before the future Unified Patent Court (UPC).

Silvia obtained her Master Degree in Biological Sciences magna cum laude in 1983 at the University of Milan with an experimental thesis on the genetic characterization of β-thalassemias.
She continued Her biotechnological research activities at Eniricerche, on the Bacilllus subtilis secretion system for the high-yield production of recombinant proteins.

In a joint research program with Sclavo, She directed her research activities on the vaccinia virus system to induce immunity against the HIV virus, working as Guest Researcher at the NIH, Laboratory of Viral Diseases, NIAID, Bethesda (USA) and gaining a deep experience in humoral and cellular immunity, viral diseases, cellular and molecular biology.

Back to Italy, she led the Molecular Biology Unit at Tecnogen ScPA, where she managed sponsored research programs. She then moved to the Office for Technology Transfer at the San Raffaele Hospital in Milan, dedicated to the development and exploitation of the results of the research activities, carrying out patent database searches and drafting patentability opinions.

She has been working in the protection of IP from research activities in the biotech, pharmaceutical and clinical fields since 1998, and from 1999 in Notarbartolo & Gervasi, an important Patent Law firm in Milan, where she worked for 10 years in the practice of patent drafting and prosecution, IP landscape and Freedom to Operate Opinions related in particular to antibodies and recombinant molecules, diagnostic and molecular screening assays, and API manufacturing processes, transgenic animals and plants. She was then called to lead the Milano IP office of Bracco Imaging a multinational company with headquarter in Milan, for 7 years. There, she gained a wide experience in imaging agents, their design and production and their IP protection, as well as in the management of the company patent portfolio and IP of outsourced research and sponsored clinical trials.

She joined Marchi & Partners in 2017, where she deals mainly with the management of pharmaceutical Clients’ patent portfolio, including drafting, filing and prosecution of patent applications, directly at the EPO or through local agents worldwide.

She is also involved in the drafting of patentability, freedom to operate and Due Diligence opinions in the fields of biotechnology (with particular reference to recombinant molecules and antibodies, next generation sequencing), pharmaceuticals (with particular reference to composition of matter and second medical use) and chemistry (with particular reference to API production).

Education: University of Milan, Italy – Master Degree in Biological Sciences (1983)

Qualifications: Italian Patent Attorney (2001),
EUIPO representative (2003)
European Patent Attorney (2009)
European Patent Litigator (2016)

Associations:Italian Board Of Biology (1984)
Association of Chartered Italian Patent Attorneys (2001)
EPI (European Patent Institute, 2009)
AICIPI (International Association of industrial IP consultant, 2010)

Languages: Italian, English, French