Janet (Jian) Xiao is an associate specializing in patent law in the Palo Alto office of Morrison & Foerster LLP. She primarily represents clients in areas of biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry in their world-wide patent procurement, patent portfolio management, and strategic planning. Dr. Xiao has significant experience in analyzing complex patent portfolios as well as mining and strengthening her client's patent portfolio.  Besides patent prosecution, her practice includes patent reexamination, patent litigation, preparation of freedom-to-operate opinions, and due diligence. 

Dr. Xiao received a B.S. from Nanjing University, a M.S. from Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences under guidance of Professor Chen-Lu Tsou, and a Ph.D. from UCLA under guidance of Professor Larry Zipursky. She received her J.D. from the Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley, where she graduated with a Law and Technology Certificate and received a Moot Court Advocacy Award. She has authored and co-authored many legal and scientific publications, including three publications on the journal Cell.

Dr. Xiao served as an extern to the Honorable Claudia Wilken in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, Oakland division in 2003. She is the winner of the 2002-2003 H. Thomas Austern Memorial Writing Competition for her law review article "Carving Out a Biotechnology Research Tool Exception to the Safe Harbor Provision of 35 U.S.C. § 271(e)(1)," 12 TIPLJ 23 (2003).

Dr. Xiao is a member of the State Bar of California and is admitted to practice before the United States Patent & Trademark Office.