Karen N. Ballack

Karen Ballack's journey into IP began in 1988 after a friend from law school recommended she make the pivotal switch from her role as a junior associate in the general corporate area to focus on IP transactions and has since enjoyed working alongside passionate engineers and scientists.

"I was drawn to the opportunity to work on transactions involving IP and new technologies that would require me to be creative and innovative in thinking about ways to protect the client's IP and other interests while achieving the business objectives of the transaction at hand, and to address challenging issues that may not have been dealt with before," she said.

Today, Ballack's work entails representing technology companies, particularly in the software and computer, mobile device, semiconductor, biotechnology, pharmaceutical and medical device industries, in their most significant transactions.

She has been involved in complex and high-stakes transactions, particularly with Brookfield, a global investment firm, and its portfolio companies.

She played a significant role in the sale of Westinghouse Electric Company, a supplier of nuclear plant products and technologies, to a consortium led by Cameco Corporation and Brookfield Renewable Partners. This transaction valued Westinghouse at an impressive $8 billion enterprise value.

Moreover, Ballack's expertise was instrumental in the sale of the Power Delivery Business of BHI Energy to United Utility Services and the acquisition of Bartlett Holdings, Inc. from AE Industrial Partners, LP.

She also worked with Catalina Marketing, a digital media solutions company that is a market leader in shopper intelligence and highly targeted in-store, TV, radio and digital media on its challenging sell-side carve-out deal in connection with its Chapter 11 restructuring.

"This was a cross-border transaction whereby Catalina sold its Japanese subsidiary, Catalina Japan, to a Japanese private equity firm, D Capital. On the IP/technology side, this deal involved the sale of certain key IP assets, the license of certain critical retained IP and technology assets, and a complicated transition service arrangement regarding Catalina's technology, IT systems and data intertwined among Catalina, Catalina Japan and other Catalina entities," Ballack explained.

And the transactional arena isn't immune from the advent of AI. Ballack said she is seeing more and more AI-related reps and warranties in deals, restrictions on using generative AI in research and development of products and services, disclosures regarding the use of AI, and expanded indemnification obligations, including for infringement, regarding the use of AI.

"AI technology is swiftly advancing and, as was the case when the Internet first burst on the scene, the laws (including IP laws) aren't able to keep pace with this breakthrough technology, so practitioners and courts are currently grappling with the intersection of AI and existing IP laws," she said. "Definitely interesting times ahead in this area."