Katrina has practised as a barrister for over 20 years including as senior counsel for ten years. She has a technical background (a first class honours degree in pharmacology) and extensive experience in pharmaceutical and biotechnology patent litigation (including hepatitis C virus, taq polymerase, omeprazole, Viagra, escitalopram, olanzapine and rosuvastatin), most recently antibody and biosimilar litigation (including Keytruda and Mabthera), various vaccines (including meningococcal and pneumococcal vaccines) and gene technologies (including for cattle breeding and cell delivery), as well as in medical devices (including stents), chemical patents, mechanical patents and IT patents (including acting for Samsung against Apple), both in the Federal Court and the Australian Patent Office. Through studies in Cambridge, UK, attending international conferences such as BIO and Patski, and involvement in many cases as part of global litigation, she has a thorough knowledge of patent laws in the US, UK and Europe, as well as Australia. Katrina has also been admitted to practise as a barrister in the UK for several years. She is identified Who's Who Legal: Patents 2018 as one of the world's leading practitioners in the field of Patents. Katrina acted as the Patent and Trade Mark Attorneys Disciplinary Tribunal from 2012-2017.
Karen is a Principal and Director of Watermark Intellectual Property Pty Ltd and a registered, and practising Patent and Trade Marks Attorney. Relevantly, Karen was on the Attorney Standards Board between 2008 and 2014 and was responsible during the latter part of the appointment for the project that delivered the first statutory Attorney Code of Conduct that came into force in October 2013. Karen is a Senior Fellow in the Faculty of Law at the University of Melbourne teaching Patent Practice in the Masters of IP Law, and held a similar appointment at Monash University between 2010-2014 teaching Infringement and Validity of Patent Specifications. She was an Examiner in the olden days for the Standards Board in Patent Practice, and was also a Tutor for IPTA’s Academy of Education in I&V throughout the period it had a role in educating attorneys. In discussions with the few remaining ‘senior’ women in the IP profession at IPTA’s 100th anniversary celebrations, it was concluded that while Karen is neither the oldest, nor the most longstanding registered female attorney in the Australian profession, she is possibly the one having longest duration in the industry. She thinks she’s proud of this.
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