Koen Bijvank
Partner and executive board
Koen is a partner at Brinkhof. He is qualified both as an attorney-at-law and as a Dutch and European patent attorney. Koen is a member of the executive board of the firm. He is a true specialist when it comes to patents. Koen represents clients in the chemical, pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors, handling international patent disputes before courts and at the European Patent Office.
Patent cases for multinationals
Koen represents various multinational companies in court or at the European Patent Office in opposition proceedings. He acts, for instance, as lead advocate for The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard in the defense of its patents on CRISPR technology in multiple opposition proceedings.
Koen is recommended by Intellectual Asset Management’s Patent 1000 ranking of The World’s Leading Patent Professionals in the Netherlands and European Patent Office categories. Managing Intellectual Property magazine also recognises him as an IP Star.
What others say about Koen:
“He is extremely creative and always manages to find solutions. Technically gifted, extremely knowledgeable and at the top of his game, Koen is someone you can be confident in a courtroom setting.”
Experience & ancillary activities
Koen chairs the AIPPI’s Standing Committee on Patents. He is co-founder and former president of EPLIT, an association of European Patent Litigators, as well as an editorial board member of Berichten Industriële Eigendom. Koen is also a tutor at CEIPI in Strasbourg, where he teaches candidates for the qualifying examination for European patent attorneys.
Koen received a master’s degree in organic chemistry of the University of Groningen in 1995. He also holds an LLM and a postgraduate certificate in Intellectual Property Litigation from Nottingham Law School in England (2011). Until 2017, Koen was a partner at the patent firm V.O. Patents & Trademarks.
Some of the cases Koen Bijvank has handled:
- lead advocate for The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard in several multi-opponent opposition cases concerning CRISPR technology at the European Patent Office;
- acting for Amgen in a dispute regarding PCSK9 antibodies;
- representing LONGi in a dispute with Hanwha Q-Cells regarding solar cells;
- representing Tata Steel in various EPO opposition proceedings against Arcelor Mittal;
- acting for Gedeon Richter in enforcement of a patent concerning adalimumab against Biogen and Samsung Bioepis.
