Gowling WLG

Life Sciences; Intellectual Property; Advertising

Principal Associate

Katharina Weimer helps clients to implement solutions in a practical manner.

Katharina is a commercial lawyer with strong expertise in three main focus areas: she specialises in international and German data protection matters, in particular with regard to international data transfer. In addition, she has a breadth of experience in non-contentious life sciences matters such as clinical trials, remote patient care and healthcare advertising, among others. These areas are supplemented by a strong background in advertising, IT, media and entertainment.

Katharina has worked on many international projects and knows the issues that can arise intimately. Often these are not legal issues but unspoken expectations and desired outcomes "lost in translation". Helping the client understand how the other side ticks goes far in finding a workable solution. This is what Katharina's goal is in every project or transaction, be it in international data protection transfers, media transactions or clinical trial agreements for pharma clients.

Katharina's world

Her professional world is in a constant flux. For one, she specialises in three fast-paced industry sectors: data protection, life sciences and media/entertainment. The development of the business and the technological/medical achievements by far outpace the legal development and are always several steps ahead of the legislation, challenging Katharina and her clients to find solutions that are on the right side of the thin line, but nevertheless at the forefront of the technological and knowledge evolution.

Having started as a sector (advertising, technology and media) focused commercial lawyer it soon became clear that sector-specific knowledge was not going to be sufficient to provide encompassing advice to her clients. Thus it was always crucial to Katharina to look beyond, and into other areas of law (having touched upon outsourcing, patent law and copyright law, among others).

When a client wanted to import live health data from Germany to test a software for a German insurance company, she embraced the opportunity to engage in data protection, which was at the time a mostly neglected area of law, as it was clear from the outset that the huge potential in data was going to become an economic driver for many companies.

The intersection of recent life sciences developments and privacy of patients and consumers is one of the most discussed topics at the moment, ranging from permissibility of health/life style apps to life-saving high tech medical equipment being used. Bringing these values in line with the patient's needs and desires under the regulator's scrutiny is the challenge.

Apart from core legal work she regularly writes articles on recent developments, has spoken at events and is always happy to provide in-house training for her clients.

Highlights

A recent transaction relating to a sports marketing agency network was particularly challenging as it involved six jurisdictions in Europe and additional agencies in China, requiring a cross-border team effort in a very time-sensitive manner. It was also interesting to gain in-depth knowledge of marketing sports events and locations involving key teams and clubs in the local jurisdictions.

Clients

BioTech start-ups, manufacturers of medical devices, remote patient care service providers; traditional and digital media enterprises, online retailers, e- and m-commerce businesses; companies of all sizes and across all industry sectors that own, transfer and/or use personal data, in particular in an international context.

Experience

Helped a young pharmaceutical company navigate the currents of French and German healthcare marketing and advertising for a not-yet locally authorized drug, with a focus on presence at events and exhibitions.

Helped successfully implement certain modules of SuccessFactors across a group of German com...

German, English, Spanish, Greek, French