Sarah Thysen, PhD

Sarah Thysen holds a Master's degree and PhD in Biomedical Sciences from the University of Leuven, Belgium. She performed the research for her Master's thesis during a 6-month stay at Tsinghua University, China, and for her PhD thesis at the Skeletal Biology and Engineering research center, University of Leuven, Belgium.

Prior to joining De Clercq & Partners, Sarah worked for one year as a scientific collaborator at the same research center.

She joined De Clercq & Partners in October 2015. Sarah obtained a Master's degree in Intellectual Property Rights and ICT law at the University of Leuven, Belgium in 2016 and qualified as a European Patent Attorney in 2019 and as a Belgian Patent Attorney in 2021. In 2023, she successfully obtained the Certificate on Patent Litigation in Europe from Politecnico di Milano, qualified as a European Patent Litigator, and registered as a representative before the Unified Patent Court (UPC).

Since 2025, Sarah has been recognised as a Rising Star in the IP STARS rankings by Managing IP.

Areas of practice

• Drafting, filing and prosecution of European and PCT patent applications
• Drafting and prosecution of national patent applications
• Drafting, filing and prosecution of Belgian patent applications as a qualified Belgian Patent Attorney
• Legal IP advice on Belgian patents
• Oppositions and appeal proceedings before the EPO
• Oral proceedings before the EPO in examination and opposition and before the Boards of Appeal
• Validations of European patents in Belgium as a qualified Belgian Patent Attorney
• Filing and prosecuting SPC’s in Belgium and advising on SPC’s in general
• Acting as an expert for the Belgian courts or parties in descriptive seizure proceedings
• Acting as an expert in litigation before Belgian civil courts or parties in intellectual property matters
• IP litigation experience in Belgium, the Netherlands, the UK and Japan
• Opinions regarding patentability, freedom-to-operate, infringement and validity of intellectual property rights
• General strategic and legal advice in IP matters
• IP due diligence
• Portfolio management, advice and strategy
• Patent literature searching and analysis
• Acting as an a European Patent Litigator/UPC Representative before the Unified Patent Court (UPC)
• Assisting infringement and validity proceedings before the UPC

Languages

Sarah is a native Dutch speaker, is very fluent in English and has a working knowledge of French.

Competences

Sarah has scientific experience in various fields of life sciences, including biotechnology, biochemistry and molecular and cellular biology – in particular, recombinant gene techniques, genetically modified plants and animals, regenerative cell therapy, in vitro cell-based assays, signal transduction cascades, proteomics, biomarkers, diagnostics including nucleic acid- and protein-based diagnostic and screening assays, immune cell therapy, pharmaceuticals, small molecules, peptides, dietary supplements and personal care compositions.