Intellectual Property Team

Shona McDiarmid is a Canadian &UK dual citizen, and has been practicing as a scientist, patent attorney and patent and trademark agent for almost two decades.  Shona holds an MSc in veterinary parasitology and a PhD in Biology and conducted postdoctoral research on tropical disease at Harvard Medical School.  Shona also holds an LLB from the University of Ottawa and was Vice President responsible for intellectual property in several biopharmaceutical companies, including Bellus Health Inc. (formerly Neurochem Inc.), Shire Pharmaceuticals Inc. and BioChem Pharma Inc.   In these roles, Shona had responsibility for worldwide activities including patent portfolio management, litigation, patent prosecution,  licensing, interferences, oppositions in many jurisdictions, due diligence and freedom to operate analysis. Her principal areas of activity were in human antiviral pharmaceuticals, vaccines and diagnostics.  Shona has served on non-profit boards and has advised Universities and hospitals on intellectual property matters.    Shona’s first passion is infectious and tropical diseases, and is responsible at Cambia for overall management of patent activities and patent landscaping.  Shona also has a black belt in Taekwondo.  Useful in negotiations.

Owen Hughes, a Canadian / US dual citizen holds a J.D. from Yale Law School as well as an M.A. from Oxford University. Owen has practiced law for over thirty years.  For the past 17 years, Owen worked in the legal division of Pfizer Inc., where he specialized in contract and licensing matters as Senior Corporate Counsel to the company's worldwide research and development group.  His legal team oversaw thousands of different R&D transactions every year, using contractual instruments and policy and training materials that he created or helped to develop, covering research collaboration, technology licensing, contract negotiation, software and information technology issues, legal compliance programs and effective communication skills.  Among his project responsibilities at Pfizer were its vaccines initiative, its support for publicly-accessible gene sequence information and its participation in FDA Critical Path Initiatives for electronic health infrastructure and pharmacogenetic research into serious adverse events.  Owen was also Global Policy Head for Pfizer's legal division supporting research and development, with expertise in public-private partnerships, Bayh-Dole Act issues, clinical trial transparency, informed consent, stem cell research and biodiversity.  At Cambia, Owen will be responsible for creating improved transactional tools to foster an innovation community that is more open and inclusive. This will include taking a lead on refining the BiOS 'open source' licenses and crafting Concords - open, mutual non-assertion instruments.  Owen is active in community development, and serves on non-profit Boards, including that of Pilobolus, a ground breaking modern dance company.

Carol holds a Ph.D. in Genetics from Stanford University and a J.D. magna cum laude from University of Puget Sound (now Seattle University) School of Law. She was a biomedical scientist in the academic world for many years before earning her law degree. Her legal focus is patents and their strategic integration with business goals. In private law practice, she often counselled clients on freedom to operate issues and saw the need for more pragmatic learning tools about patents.  Carol was the Director of Intellectual Property and Chief Legal Officer for Cambia until 2004 and oversaw the creation of the Cambia IP Resource. She has now returned to private practice (www.cougarlaw.com) and is retained as a consultant for Cambia.