Reverse Engineering and its Limits: Lessons from the Nostalgia Clock, in The Future of IP: Stimulating Creativity and Inclusivity

This celebratory volume honours the remarkable career and intellectual legacy of Professor Dr. Geertrui Van Overwalle, an influential scholar in patent law and plant breeders’ rights. For more than four decades, Van Overwalle has questioned conventions, supported inclusivity, openness, and the public interest. In addition, she has upheld rigorous academic standards and strongly defended academic integrity.

Structured around six thematic parts and enriched with peculiar inventions drawn from Jacques Carelman’s Catalog of Fantastic Things – each selected and reimagined by the contributors – this Liber Amicorum offers both a scholarly and deeply personal tribute. It invites readers to see IP not as a closed system, but as a framework that can be shaped to promote creativity, openness, inclusivity, equity, and public interest – priorities and values that Van Overwalle has consistently advanced throughout her career.