Jurgen Figys is a senior counsel in Crowell & Moring's Brussels office and a member of the Intellectual Property Group. Jurgen is one of the few lawyers in Belgium also to be trained as a biomedical scientist. He is therefore able to combine his scientific reasoning with his legal knowledge, a considerable asset in the technology-driven IP field.
Jurgen predominantly works with clients in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry, with a particular focus on complex patent litigation and regulatory advice. He has particular experience in patent litigation with regard to invalidity, third-party opposition proceedings against counterfeit seizure, and preliminary injunction proceedings. His pre-contentious experience includes freedom-to-operate patent analysis and drafting protective letters. Jurgen is also involved in a number of trademark cases, such as parallel import litigation.
Within life sciences, Jurgen provides strategic regulatory advice to pharmaceutical and biotech companies as well as national and European industry associations. His experience covers a broad range of regulatory issues like data exclusivity, EU marketing authorizations, pricing and reimbursement of medicinal products, advertising, medical devices, clinical trials, and data. Digital transformation in the health sector is also one of his main focus areas.
Thanks to his scientific background, Jurgen is also able to advise clients on other EU regulatory issues with a technical angle. For example, Jurgen has an impressive, substantive knowledge of REACH through his work for a wide range of U.S. and EU-based clients. He also regularly advises on CLP issues. In addition to providing legal and strategic advice on REACH/CLP compliance, Jurgen is able in particular to assist clients with their more science-driven submissions to the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) (preliminary risk assessments of potential chemicals of concern, etc.).
Legal Rankings
Jurgen is ranked as a Rising Star for Healthcare & Life Sciences in Legal 500 EMEA (2020), and has over the last few years been described as a "name to note," a "key member of the team" and as "standing out." He is also an IP Rising Star according to Managing IP Magazine (2019) and a Life Sciences’ Rising Star in the LMG Expert Guides (2019).
Prior to joining Crowell & Moring in 2013, Jurgen worked for ten years at the Free University of Brussels as a Ph.D. student and as a director of successive scientific studies for the Belgian Ministry of Defense, performing research on cell metabolism, apoptosis, and cancer physiology. The design of a non-natural linear constrained peptide library was one of the main achievements of his project.
Jurgen is a frequent speaker at professional conferences, both on IP and regulatory topics, and teaches a course on patent enforcement to biomedical students at the University of Antwerp. He is also an active member of the International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property (AIPPI).
Education
- Free University of Brussels (Vrije Universiteit Brussel), M.B.M.S. (2001) magna cum laude
- Free University of Brussels (Vrije Universiteit Brussel), LL.M. (2010) cum laude
Affiliations
Admitted to practice: in Belgium and before the European Court
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