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Geertrui Van Overwalle (°1958) studied law at the Katholieke Universiteit Brussel (K.U.Brussel, now H.U.B, Belgium) and the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (K.U.Leuven, Belgium). She received her law degree (Master of Laws) in 1985 magna cum laude at the K.U.Leuven. In addition, she took a course of biotechnology at the Belgian Royal Society of Engineers in 1990.

Geertrui Van Overwalle joined the Centre for Intellectual Property Rights (CIR) at the Faculty of Law of the K.U.Leuven (Belgium) in 1991. In 1995, she obtained her Ph.D. with a dissertation on the Patentability of Plants ('Octrooieerbaarheid van plantenbiotechnologische uitvindingen', Brussel, Bruylant, 1996, 745 p.).

In 1995 Geertrui Van Overwalle became a post-doctoral researcher at the Centre for Intellectual Property Rights (CIR) at the K.U.Leuven, Belgium.

At present she is associate professor at the K.U.Leuven (80%), full professor at the University of Tilburg-Tilburg Institute for Law, Technology, and Society-TILT (20%), and professor at the Université de Liège (10%).

In 2003 she was a visiting professor at Monash University, Melbourne, where she lectured on 'International Aspects of Patenting Inventions in Biotechnology'.

Geertrui Van Overwalle is a member of the national Belgian High Council for Intellectual Property, and the national Belgian Council for Plant Breeder?s Rights Law. She is a member of the European Commission?s Expert Group on Biotechnological Inventions. She is also a member of the Economic and Scientific Advisory Board of the European Patent Office (ESAB), the Standing Advisory Committee before the European Patent Office (SACEPO) and the Scientific Advisory Board (Fachbeirat) of the Max-Planck-Institute for Intellectual Property and Competition Law. She is also appointed as a member of the Board of Appeal of the Community Plant Variety Office at Angers.
She contributed as an expert to the Report Policy options for the improvement of the European patent system commissioned by the European Parliament. She was also an external advisor to the Unitaid Medicines Patent Pool Initiative.

Positions:

• Full Professor K.U.Leuven, 70%
• Partime Professor U. Liège, 20 %

Activities in scientific associations

• International Association for the Advancement of Teaching and Research in Intellectual Property (ATRIP)
• Association Internationale pour la Protection de la Propriété Industrielle (AIPPI)
• European Commission, Expert Group on Biotechnological Inventions (Internal Market DG & Research DG European Policy for Intellectual Property (EPIP) Association
• Federale Raad voor de Intellectuele Eigendom, Belgium
• Federale Raad voor Kwekersrecht, Belgium
• Comité van Aanbeveling Boek9.nl (zie http://www.boek9.nl/page.php?///Colofon/), Nederland