Axel Plas

EDUCATION

Axel Plas graduated as civil engineer electromechanics at the University of Brussels (VUB). He also obtained a Master degree in Informatics at the Hasselt University (UHasselt). Axel is a registered European patent attorney since 1998.

CAREER

Axel Plas started his career at Alcatel-Lucent (Nokia nowadays) where he developed a patent portfolio related to the DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) technology in close collaboration with the R&D Teams. Together with management and legal staff, Axel co-defined the license and litigation strategy for this patent portfolio, enabling Alcatel-Lucent to become the world leader in this technology. When Alcatel-Lucent acquired Newbridge, Axel moved to Canada to establish and lead a patent department in Ottawa.

Axel Plas was co-founder of Business-Integrated-Intellectual-Property in 2006, and is since 2009 co-founder, owner and CEO of IP Hills.

AREAS OF PRACTICE

His areas of practice include:

• Drafting, filing and prosecution of Belgian, European and international patent applications;
• Oppositions and appeal proceedings before the European Patent Office (EPO);
• Oral proceedings before the EPO in examination or opposition proceedings and before the Boards of Appeal;
• Validation of European patents as national patents or European patents with unitary effect;
• Advising clients regarding patentability of ideas, freedom-to-operate (FTO), infringement and validity of intellectual property rights;
• Assisting in patent lawsuits before national courts;
• Advising clients regarding contracts and clauses in IP transactions like for instance non-disclosure agreements, license agreements, R&D agreements, technology transfer agreements;
• Due diligence of patent portfolios and IP related contracts, for instance in the framework of mergers and acquisitions;
• Patent portfolio management;
• General strategic and legal advice in IP matters.

COMPETENCES

Axel Plas has expertise in the domains of mechanics, industrial processes, electronics, telecommunications, ICT and informatics, digital signal processing, and new technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning.

LANGUAGES

Axel Plas is a native Dutch speaker, is also very fluent in English, and has knowledge of French.