About Us

Our Firm

ARC-IP advises on all aspects of Intellectual Property (IP), including patents, trade marks, domain names, designs, copyright, confidentiality agreements, licensing, IP searching and due diligence. We help our clients to obtain rights which protect and increase the value of their innovations and brands and to enforce such rights throughout Europe and the rest of the world.

We act directly before the European Patent Office, the EUIPO (the European trade marks and designs office) and the patent and trade mark offices of the UK, Belgium, France and the Benelux. We also act throughout the rest of Europe and elsewhere via our network of associates. We secure patent, design and trade mark registrations; we build global IP strategies and enforce clients’ IP rights when necessary.

Areas of Practice

  • Filing, prosecution, administration of European, International, Belgian and UK patent applications, and of Community, Benelux and UK trade marks and designs
  • Oppositions and appeals
  • Nullity actions, cancellation actions
  • Litigation
  • Opinions on patentability/registrability, validity and freedom to operate/use
  • Licensing (negotiation, agreement preparation and drafting)
  • Searches, status checks, monitoring
  • Landscaping
  • General and legal advice in IP matters.

Areas of Technology

We advise on all technical subject matter and have particular experience in: engineering, materials, manufacturing technology, brewing, packaging, glass technology, optics and optical filters, thin film technology, automotive engineering, building materials, off shore technology, plastics, chemical and physical surface treatments of materials, mineral chemistry.

Attorneys

Guy Farmer, Ir

guyfarmer

Guy Farmer is a British, Belgian and European Patent Attorney and a British and European Trade Mark Attorney.

Following his engineering degree, Guy qualified in private practice in the UK before spending a number of years in Belgium in charge of the patent and trade mark department of a major European manufacturing company.

Guy specialises in engineering, materials and manufacturing technology and has experience in areas as diverse as brewing technology and trade mark portfolio management for major retail chains. He has particular experience in building materials, glass technology, optical filters and thin films, automotive and off shore technology, medical refrigeration and registered designs.

In addition to his work in drafting, prosecution, oppositions and freedom of use analysis, Guy has considerable experience in technology licensing, IP aspects of mergers and acquisitions and patent litigations in Belgium, France, Italy, Germany, Luxembourg, India and the US.

Working languages: English (mother tongue), French.

European

Sébastien Tuilard, Ir, MSc

European & Belgian Patent Attorney

Sébastien has a French engineering degree with a specialisation in physics and applied physics and a further Masters degree in nanophysics, nanocomponents and nanomeasurement. After having worked in R&D in a Belgian laboratory and federal institute, Sébastien qualified as a Europeanand Belgianpatent attorney and focusses on engineering physics and mechanics.

Working languages: French (mother tongue), English.

European Patent Attorney

Aline Sliwa, PhD, Ir

European Patent Attorney

Aline focusses on organic chemistry, polymer chemistry and chemical engineering. She started her career in industrial research before transferring her skills to the field of intellectual property. Aline has a PhD in organic and medicinal chemistry, a masters in Organic, Bio-Organic and Environmental Chemistry and a “Diplôme d’ingénieur” with a specialization in Industrial Organic Chemistry.

Working languages: French (mother tongue), English

European

Henry Bosch

European & Belgian Patent Attorney

Henry is a European Patent Attorney and a Belgian Patent Attorney. After having worked for nearly 10 years in a Belgian and Luxembourg private practice and then 20 years in a multinational company, Henry joined ARC-IP as a consultant. Henry has extensive experience in dealing with patents worldwide, with patent litigation and with freedom to operate analysis. He has particular expertise in chemistry, agro-chemistry, and biomedical devices and equipment.

Working languages: German (mother tongue), French, English.

Paralegals

Sybille Hausman

Sybille Hausman

Working as a paralegal consultant, Sibylle has a degree in Political Sciences. She is in charge of Human Resources administration and general patent formalities.

Working languages: French/Dutch/English

Caroline Vermeiren

Caroline Vermeiren

Following her degree in English and Spanish Translation, Caroline worked for more than 10 years in industry as a patent paralegal. Caroline joined ARC-IP, where she is in charge of administrative management and patent validations.

Working languages: French/English/Spanish

Laetitia Vansteenkiste

Laetitia has a degree in Tourism Management. She worked for 8 years in an international law firm before joining ARC-IP as a paralegal assistant. She is in charge of administration, patent validations and general patent and trademark formalities.

Working languages: French/English

Our Philosophy

Patents and trade marks are business tools; correctly used they can increase the value of your business.
We work as a team using our resources and IP experience and your expertise to advance your projects.

How We Work

We provide knowledge, we propose IP strategies to meet the project’s aims and we carry out the agreed IP strategy, be it a simple trade mark registration or a complex “freedom to operate” analysis of competitors’ patents.

Our Strengths: The 3 P’s

++ Professionalism
Professionalism not only in our advice, but also in our openness, our efficiency, our speed of response, the clarity of our charging scales and all other aspects of our business.

++ Partnership
We make sure that we have understood your needs, objectives and existing expertise; our advice and services are tailored to match.

++ Practicality
Our advice and recommendations are always practical and understandable.

Associates & References

Our clients include companies ranging from multi-nationals to start-ups, universities and research centres. Each project on which we work is carefully defined with our clients to ensure that we pursue the desired objectives within the agreed budget.

We also work with firms of attorneys throughout the world providing our expertise on local practice before the European patent and trade mark offices and the patent and trade mark offices of the Benelux, Belgium, France and the UK.