Jihong Lou is an associate in Quinn Emanuel’s Washington, DC office. Her practice concentrates on patent litigation and appeal, with a particular emphasis on cases involving pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, including those arising under the Hatch-Waxman Act. Jihong also represents clients in post-grant proceedings before the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Jihong has represented clients at all stages of patent litigation and appeal, from pre-litigation assessment, through claim construction, fact and expert discovery, to trial and appeal. Drawing from her years of experience as a former Federal Circuit law clerk and a drug discovery project leader, Jihong applies her in-depth technical and legal experience in formulating case strategy, developing technical positions on infringement and invalidity, taking and defending depositions of fact and expert witnesses, preparing dispositive motions, and drafting key briefs.
Prior to law school, Jihong was a drug discovery project leader, group leader, and associate research fellow in medicinal chemistry at Pfizer, where she worked on drug discovery research projects in oncology, diabetes, ophthalmology, and virology therapeutic areas. In 2008, she embarked on a career in law by attending law school in the evenings while working as a patent agent full time at a law firm. From 2013 to 2017, Jihong served as a law clerk to the Honorable Alan D. Lourie on the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
- University of San Diego School of Law
(J.D., summa cum laude, 2012)- Valedictorian
- Order of the Coif
- Columbia University
(Ph.D., Chemistry, 1998) - University of Science and Technology of China
(B.S., Chemistry, 1993)
- The District of Columbia Bar
- The State Bar of California
- United States Patent and Trademark Office
- Mandarin
- Law Clerk for the Honorable Alan D. Lourie:
- United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, 2013-2017
- Ranked in The Best Lawyers in America: Ones to Watch for IP Law, IP Litigation, and Patent Litigation, 2023-2025
- Moderator, “The 2020 Appellate Year-in-Review,” PTAB Bar Association (March 25, 2021)
- Moderator, “Federal Circuit Appeals from Biotech IPRs,” PTAB Bar Association (October 22, 2019)
Selected Legal Publications (Co-Authored)
- “Precedential Opinion Panel Resolves Conflicts in PTAB Opinions on Joinder: The Role of Amicus Briefs,” 18 Chi.-Kent J. Intell. Prop. | PTAB Bar Assoc. L.J. 102 (2019).
- “The Impact of TC Heartland on Hatch-Waxman and BPCIA Litigation,” The Naples Roundtable, Feb. 2018, available at https://www.thenaplesroundtable.org/2018-institute-issues-and-papers/.
Selected Scientific Publications (Co-Authored)
- “Discovery of Ketone-Based Covalent Inhibitors of Coronavirus 3CL Proteases for the Potential Therapeutic Treatment of COVID-19,” J. Med. Chem., 63(21), 12725 (2020).
- “Identification of Novel Pyrrolopyrazoles as Protein Kinase C β II Inhibitors,” Bioorg. & Med. Chem. Lett., 21(1), 584 (2011).
- “Pyridones as Glucokinase Activators: Identification of a Unique Metabolic Liability of the 4- Sulfonyl-2-Pyridone Heterocycle,” Bioorg. & Med. Chem. Lett., 19(12), 3247 (2009).
- “Steady-State and Pre-Steady-State Kinetic Evaluation of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (SARS-CoV) 3CLpro Cysteine Protease: Development of an Ion-Pair Model for Catalysis,” Biochem., 47(8), 2617 (2008).
- “The Binding of Cocaine to Cyclodextrins,” Bioorg. & Med. Chem. Lett., 10(17), 1931 (2000).
- “Synthetic Retinals: Convenient Probes of Rhodopsin and the Visual Transduction Process,” Methods in Enzymology, 315, 219 (2000).
- “Enantioselective Binding of an 11-cis-Locked Cyclopropyl Retinal. The Conformation of Retinal in Bovine Rhodopsin,” Org. Lett., 1(1), 51 (1999).
- “Coherent Anti-Stokes Vibrational Raman Spectra of Artificial Rhodopsin Pigments Containing Ring Structures Blocking 11-cis Isomerization,” J. Molecular Structure, 478(1-3), 107 (1999).
- “Vibrational Spectroscopy of a Picosecond, Structurally Restricted Intermediate Containing a 7- Membered Ring in the Room Temperature Photo-Reaction of an Artificial Rhodopsin,” J. Am. Chem. Soc., 120(15), 3739 (1998).
- “Solving Challenging Bioorganic Problems by Exciton Coupled CD,” Pure & Applied Chem., 70(2), 377 (1998).
- “Absolute Sense of Twist of C-12/13 Bond of the Retinal Chromophore in Bovine Rhodopsin Based on Coupled CD of 11,12-Dihydroretinal Analogs,” Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl., 36(19), 2089 (1997).
- “Partial Agonist Activity of 11-cis-Retinal in Rhodopsin Mutants,” J. Bio. Chem., 272(37), 23081 (1997).