Attorney-at-law

Jan Janssen is a senior dispute resolution lawyer at PETILLION with a keen interest in complex regulatory matters and technology.

He specialises in commercial and international arbitration with a focus on intellectual property, information technology, ISDS and the liberalisation of sectors.

Jan’s practice primarily involves complex commercial litigation and commercial arbitration in a variety of industries including fashion, media, postal services, technology and telecommunications. Jan regularly deals with cross-border disputes involving conflicts of laws issues, coordinating the international enforcement of high-value causes. Jan also provides contractual advice and assists clients in protecting, managing and enforcing their intellectual property rights both in an online and offline environment.

He is valued in the arbitration community for his insights in the relationship between technology, IP, antitrust laws, and investor-state arbitration.

Education
  • Master of Laws – Leuven University (2008)
  • Member of the Belgian team in the 2008 edition of the international Philip C. Jessup Law Moot Court Competition – Winner of the Hardy C.Dillard Award for Best Memorials 
Languages
Dutch,
English,
French
Career

Admitted to the Brussels Bar in 2008, Jan has been working with Flip since the start of his career. He started his career as an associate of Flip in the Brussels office of a U.S. law firm (International Arbitration and Dispute Resolution department; Intellectual Property department). In 2017, he joined the newly created PETILLION law firm.

Throughout his career, Jan has been focusing on the intersection between technology, regulation, antitrust and IP. Jan combines an excellent command of procedural and private international law with in-depth knowledge on substantive matters, involving digital markets. He has been at the forefront of arbitrations concerning Internet governance assigned to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

Jan has acted as counsel, secretary, and sole arbitrator in domestic, international, and investor-state arbitrations, resolving disputes ranging from post M&A transactions, offshore and onshore renewable energy projects to R&D and licensing agreements, etc.

Jan’s volunteer work includes being the elected Secretary of the US-based Intellectual Property Constituency, advising CEPANI40 as a member of their steering committee, and engaging as a team member of the Marques Dispute Resolution Committee.

Cases
  • Represented the Belgian government before the Court of Justice of the European Union, defending the implementation of the postal services directive.
  • Representing Namecheap in an international arbitration against ICANN regarding a regulatory decision to remove price caps in wholesale transactions for the registration of domain names in legacy top-level domains (ICDR administered arbitration).
  • Assisting Beevers Kaas, the exclusive distributor of Beemster cheese in Belgium, in a distribution and competition case against Dutch supermarket chain Albert Heijn (proceedings before the Antwerp Court of Appeal, Belgian Competition Authority and the Court of Justice of the European Union). 
  • Sole arbitrator in an international arbitration regarding the termination of a distribution agreement and associated trademark rights (CEPANI administered arbitration).
  • Jan represented a telecommunications software developer in an international commercial arbitration on alleged development failures of the software (CEPANI administered arbitration). 

Recognitions

  • Jan has been acknowledged in the most recent edition of the World Trademark Review 1000 as “integral to the firm’s success” and as embodying all the attributes of a great lawyer.  “Janssen delivers strategic counsel on online brand protection”.

    World Trademark Review 1000

  • Leaders League has again personally recommended Jan for commercial litigation and has increased Jan’s ranking for international arbitration to “Highly recommended”.

    Leaders League

  • Jan is recognized by both the Legal 500 EMEA and Managing IP Magazine as an “IP Rising Star”.

    Legal 500 EMEA & Managing IP Magazine

  • The Legal 500 EMEA specifically recommends Jan “for his broad practice and experience of appearing before EU courts up to the CJEU”.

    Legal 500 EMEA

    Projects & Achievements