People

UPC Representative and European Patent Attorney
Founder of Altius De Clercq

Liesbet Paemen (PhD) is a Partner at De Clercq & Partners, European Patent Attorney and a registered UPC Representative. She has extensive experience in patent prosecution, opposition and appeal proceedings, strategic advisory work and litigation-related matters in the life sciences and biotechnology sectors. She advises innovative companies on the protection, enforcement and optimisation of complex patent portfolios. 

Liesbet holds a PhD in Animal Biology from KU Leuven and combines a strong academic background with substantial industrial and private practice experience. She gained several years of postdoctoral research experience in neuroimmunology and molecular immunology in both Belgium and the United States. Prior to joining De Clercq & Partners, she worked as a patent counsel at Bayer CropScience and headed the biotechnology IP department of a private IP firm, giving her a strong in-house perspective and a clear understanding of commercial and strategic considerations. She joined De Clercq & Partners in 2008 and became a partner in 2010.  

Liesbet’s technical expertise covers a broad range of life sciences fields, including medical devices, biomedical and agricultural biotechnology, plant molecular biology, genome editing, diagnostics, screening technologies and renewable energy-related inventions. She is regularly involved in freedom-to-operate analyses, IP due diligence, portfolio management and strategic decision-making for multinational companies, SMEs and research-driven organisations. 

In addition to her client work, Liesbet is actively involved in academia and the wider IP community. She teaches a course on Patents and Innovation at the University of Antwerp, regularly lectures on intellectual property law at other Belgian universities and international programmes and is a member of several professional IP organisations. Her work is consistently recognised by leading international legal directories.