16 Sep 2026
Greenberg Traurig Expands Life Sciences Patent Capabilities with Addition of Kunyong Yang in San Diego
"Greenberg Traurig welcomes Kunyong Yang as a shareholder in its San Diego office to strengthen the firm's patents and life sciences intellectual property practice."
Yang joins Greenberg Traurig’s Patents and Innovation Strategies Group within the Intellectual Property & Technology Practice, bringing decades of combined experience as a patent attorney and a former medicinal chemist. He advises emerging biotechnology companies, clinical-stage drug developers, and multinational pharmaceutical companies on building and managing global patent portfolios, IP due diligence, licensing transactions, and lifecycle management strategies. Drawing on nearly a decade as a scientist before entering the legal profession, Yang works on complex technologies including small molecule therapeutics, antibody-drug conjugates, radiopharmaceuticals, mRNA, and siRNA.
Yang is recognized for helping innovators develop and defend strategic patent portfolios that support business growth, investment, licensing, and commercialization. His experience spans the lifecycle of innovation from early-stage discovery through regulatory exclusivity and late-stage portfolio management. He also has experience in Hatch-Waxman litigation and post-grant proceedings before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Yang’s fluency in Mandarin Chinese enhances his ability to advise on cross-border IP matters and support innovators operating in the United States and Asia.
Among his notable representations, Yang helped establish and prosecute global patent portfolios for Nuvalent, Inc., covering precision medicines targeting specific kinases, and advised Allorion Therapeutics on patent matters and IP due diligence in global licensing transactions involving clinical-stage and preclinical cancer therapies. He has also developed patent portfolios for oncology, fibrosis, and metabolic disease therapies and supported IP due diligence in significant pharmaceutical transactions and financings.
Yang previously worked with Greenberg Traurig patent and life sciences shareholders Christopher C. Bolten, Jeffery C. Giering, Ph.D., and Micheal L. Hebert, Ph.D., at Jones Day. He earned his J.D., magna cum laude, from the University of San Diego School of Law, holds a master’s degree in organic chemistry from Michigan Technological University and a bachelor’s degree from Nanjing University, and is admitted to practice in California and before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.