Thomas Coppens

EDUCATION

Thomas Coppens holds a Master in Law from the University of Leuven, an LL.M. International Law from the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster (Germany) and an MBA General International Management from Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School (Belgium).

CAREER

Leaving a magic circle law firm and the Antwerp Bar Thomas Coppens started as a solo legal counsel in a Belgian private company where he set up a legal department and managed to position the legal and intellectual property (IP) department as a service provider towards all subsidiaries, locally and internationally. Also, he was attributed responsibility for the companies’ corporate governance and insurances as secretary-general. As a member of the management, he fulfilled projects in the field of M&A, strategic innovation, intellectual property and risk management. In parallel with his activities, Thomas Coppens was an administration officer at the io-home control association. Later on, he managed a business unit designing and manufacturing transformers. In 2010 Thomas Coppens founded together with Axel Plas IP Hills providing IP services for companies in several economic sectors. Thomas Coppens heads since 2013 the trademark and design department.

AREAS OF PRACTICE

His areas of practice include:

– Strategic advice regarding IP assets, IP portfolio and budget management;

– Branding, re-branding and trademark management;

– Enforcement of IP rights, assistance in opposition, invalidation, litigation or arbitration cases, in Belgium and abroad;

– Enforcement of IP rights in cases of counterfeiting, offline and online (platforms and social media) (including watch services);

– Assistance in case of domain name disputes, domain name grabbing and negotiations related thereto;

– Acting as an expert in litigation before Belgian civil courts or parties in intellectual property matters regarding copyrights, designs and trademarks;

– Negotiating and drafting commercial and license contracts on behalf of his clientele;

– Transfer of IP assets and transaction agreements related thereto;

– Valuation of trademarks and royalty determination;

– IP due diligence in the context of share and asset deals;

– IP process and funnel management.

COMPETENCES

Thomas Coppens has expertise in various areas of Intellectual Property, Contract and Corporate Law. He assisted and assists several innovative SME’s and multinationals in a wide field of sectors such as gaming, software, real estate, building, furniture and interior design, process automation, cleantech, mobility, fintech, banking, food and beverages, sports and fashion. Thomas Coppens is a person with a very wide range of ideas, open-minded, constructive and business-oriented. He combines insights in intellectual property, contracts, litigation and general management into pragmatic advice and solutions.

LANGUAGES

Thomas Coppens is a native Dutch speaker, is also very fluent in English, French and German.