Department:
Chemical & Life Sciences

Location:
Cambridge

Service:
Patents

Industry:
Biotechnology, Chemical, Medical Devices, Natural Resources, Pharmaceutical

Languages:
French

Contact: kmcnamara@vennershipley.co.uk

Kate is a Chartered and European patent attorney specialising in the fields of pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and the life sciences. She handles a wide variety of subject matter and has considerable expertise in inhalation technology, pharmaceutical formulations and diagnostic methods, as well as a keen interest in the areas of neuroscience, cardiology and stem cell technology.

Kate handles all aspects of drafting, filing and prosecution of patent applications, and particularly enjoys opposition and other contentious work. Kate has also gained experience in many aspects of the management, assertion and defence of patent rights. She enjoys the challenge of dealing with often technically complex subject matter, and finding the best way to protect her clients’ innovative ideas. Her clients range from single inventors to biotech start-ups and international pharmaceutical companies.

Professional Memberships

Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneyss

Member of the European Patent Institute

Education

Kate graduated from York University with a 1st class honours degree in biology. Her degree incorporated a placement in a research laboratory with a pharmaceutical company which involved the culture and use of cell lines to screen for active compounds and electrophysiological characterization of neuronal cells. She subsequently attained a DPhil in neuropharmacology from the University of Oxford, for which she investigated a novel peptide which was thought to be implicated in neurodegeneration for a biotech start-up company. A postdoctoral position at the University of Queensland, Australia, then gave Kate the opportunity to work in the exciting areas of neural stem cell characterisation and cardiac ischaemia. She gained a certificate in Intellectual Property Law from Manchester University School of Law in 2004.