Institute News

Congratulations on completing your apprenticeship! How do you feel now that you have successfully completed your apprenticeship, and what does this achievement mean to you personally?

I'm doing very well. I'm very happy that I made it. It was very important to me to complete the apprenticeship when I decided to do it. And that's what I've achieved now.

Which experiences or challenges have particularly affected you during your training?

There was one very big thing: in my second year of training, I was able to visit the Art History Institute in Florence for two weeks, which is also a Max Planck Institute. I gained a lot of new impressions there. It was also a challenge personally: alone in a foreign country, in a foreign city, without speaking the language. But it was really very nice and an enriching experience.

What did you like best about your training at the Institute? Do you have any special memories of projects or experiences?

Of course, the already mentioned visit to Florence. I also spent two days at the Harnack House in Berlin, where I provided organizational support for a scientific event. That was also a very nice and interesting experience. In addition, we had an administrative retreat because our administrations are now being merged*. It was a very good opportunity for us to exchange ideas. This is an ongoing project that will probably be with us for some time to come. But it is very interesting.

*Editor's note: The Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition and the Max Planck Institute for Tax Law and Public Finance have had joint administration since they emerged from the Max Planck Institute for Intellectual Property, Competition and Tax Law in 2011. In 2024, the administration of the Max Planck Institute for Social Law and Social Policy was integrated.

What skills or knowledge did you develop during your apprenticeship that will now help you in your new position in accounting?

I have definitely become more confident and independent, especially with regard to work processes. I have learned a great deal in this regard. Because I have been in many different units, I am familiar with the interrelationships and am sometimes better able to assess how something is to be classified or understood.

Was the position in accounting something you prefered, or was there a vacancy at the moment?

It was my own preference. I liked many areas of the administration, but I most enjoyed working in the accounting team. And then I was lucky enough to be offered a two-year contract.

You are now a permanent member of the administration team. What are your expectations and hopes for your professional future there?

I want to gain work experience and continue learning. We make a very good team here and I hope it stays that way. It makes you feel even better about your job.

What makes the administration of the three Max Planck Institutes a special place to work and be trained?

The field of work is very extensive, especially now that the administrations of the institutes are being merged. We are looking at what we can take from each other's administrative processes and thus improve overall and simplify processes. It is very varied, also because there are a lot of regulations in the public sector that we have to follow.

Are there fundamental differences in the work culture between the two administrations as they grow together, or are they just details that are handled differently?

Some processes are entirely different. We try to combine them so that you end up with a process that has elements from both. However, I noticed that there were significant differences in some areas due to the level of digitization. These were the first to be adjusted.

What advice would you give to young people interested in an apprenticeship as an office management assistant?

Definitely do it! The profession is very extensive and varied. There are many different areas in which you can learn something. You don't always learn in great depth, but you learn the basics in every area. That's a good foundation for your future career.

(The interview was conducted by Hella Schuster.)

The Munich Summer Institute 2025 will take place as an in-person event in Munich. The Summer Institute will be preceded by the fourth MSI Ph.D. Workshop on 26 May 2025. A best Ph.D. student paper award will be awarded during the MSI conference dinner.

The Summer Institute will focus on three areas:

• Digitalization, Strategy and Organization
  (chairs: Tobias Kretschmer and Christian Peukert),
• Innovation and Entrepreneurship
  (chairs: Dietmar Harhoff, Joachim Henkel and Hanna Hottenrott), and
• Law & Economics of Intellectual Property, Innovation & Digitalization
  (chair: Stefan Bechtold and Imke Reimers).

The goal of the Munich Summer Institute is to stimulate a rigorous in-depth discussion of a select number of research papers and to strengthen the interdisciplinary international research community in these areas. Researchers in economics, law, management and related fields at all stages of their career (from Ph.D. students to full professors) may attend the Munich Summer Institute as presenters in a plenary or a poster session, as discussants or as attendees. The Munich Summer Institute will feature two keynote lectures, several plenary presentations, as well as poster sessions (including poster slams).

The Munich Summer Institute will be held at the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition in the heart of Munich. There is no registration fee, but participants are expected to fund their own travel and accommodation. The Munich Summer Institute may provide limited travel scholarships in case of financial hardship.

Keynote Speakers
 

• Michela Giorcelli (University of California – Los Angeles)
• Fiona Scott-Morton (Yale University)

Paper submission procedure

Researchers who would like to present a paper are invited to submit their paper online by 15 February 2025. The Munich Summer Institute only considers papers which have not been published or accepted for publication at the date of submission. Paper selections will be announced in late March 2025. The program of the Munich Summer Institute will be available in April 2025. All accepted papers will be made available to all participants in mid-May 2025. Researchers who would like to attend the Munich Summer Institute without giving a presentation should contact one of the organizers by 15 April 2025.
 

Online Paper Submission

Further information

More information is available at the MSI website. Any questions concerning the Munich Summer Institute should be directed to Stefan Bechtold, Dietmar Harhoff, Joachim Henkel, Hanna Hottenrott, Tobias Kretschmer, Christian Peukert, or Imke Reimers.

Call for Papers and Call for Participants 

Niccolò Galli worked on his doctoral thesis at the Institute between 2017 and 2020 as part of the EIPIN Joint Doctorate Program , under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Josef Drexl and Dr. Beatriz Conde Gallego. Seine Dissertation wurde im April 2023 gemeinsam an den Universitäten Augsburg und Maastricht verteidigt. A detailed description of the doctoral thesis can be found in the Activity Report 2018–2020. Currently, Niccolò Galli is a postdoctoral researcher at the European University Institute and a lecturer in Intellectual Property Law at the University of Florence.

Jacques Lassier Prize

Established in 1982, the Jacques Lassier Prize is dedicated to the legacy of the former chairman of the LIDC and honors outstanding dissertations in the field of competition law. The 2024 jury was composed of distinguished scholars and practitioners, including Jules Stuyck, Florian Bien, Muriel Chagny, Pinar Akman, and Pranvera Këllezi.
 

Founded in 1930, the LIDC is a worldwide association with 18 national sections and over 800 members working in academia and the legal profession. It is dedicated to promoting research in the areas of competition law, intellectual property law and unfair competition law.

For more information about the Jacques Lassier Prize and the LIDC's activities, please visit the official website: LIDC Jacques-Lassier-Preis.

Go directly to the doctoral thesis:

Galli, N. (2023). Patent aggregation, innovation and eu competition law. [Doctoral Thesis, Maastricht University, University of Augsburg]. Maastricht University / University of Ausburg.
 https://doi.org/10.26481/dis.20230420ng 

The workshop was first organized by Junior Researchers in 2018, and is aimed at Ph.D. students and Junior Postdocs worldwide. RISE offers them an opportunity to present their work, receive feedback from experienced researchers and connect with peers from other research institutions.

See the Program RISE7 (PDF).

More information on the workshop website RISE7 Workshop.

Hanns Ullrich’s career has been characterised by a relentless pursuit of excellence and a deep commitment to understanding the complexities of intellectual property law. In his academic work, he has addressed critical issues of patent law, competition law and the intersection of technology and innovation. His findings have not only advanced academic discourse, but have also influenced the legal framework and jurisprudence worldwide.

Already during his time as a Senior Research Fellow at the then Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Patent, Copyright and Competition Law in the 1970s and 1980s, Hanns Ullrich stood out because of his critical view of intellectual property law at a time when this did not correspond to the scientific mainstream at the Institute, much less outside it. And yet, thanks to this very trait, he can be regarded as a trailblazer and important pioneer of modern intellectual property law.

Beyond his academic achievements, Hanns Ullrich is celebrated for his mentoring role and his commitment to supporting the next generation of legal scholars. His ability to inspire young researchers and his willingness to initiate critical dialogue at all times have made him a challenging and therefore highly esteemed figure in the academic community.

After a long and impressive career, first as full professor at the University of the Bundeswehr (Federal Armed Forces) in Munich and from 2003 to 2006 also as a full professor at the European University Institute in Florence, Hanns Ullrich returned to the Institute as an Affiliated Research Fellow. We extend our hearfelt thanks to him for his contributions to numerous research projects since then. To this day, he can regularly be found in his office and he continues to speak out on current topics - most recently in the research paper Die Schattenseite des Einheitspatents (The Dark Side of the Unitary Patent) in the Institute’s SSRN series.

Hanns Ullrich has received many honours. In 2009, for his 70^th birthday, he was presented with the commemorative publication Technology and Competition/Technologie et Concurrence, which was followed up in the volume A Critical Mind, published in 2020. In 2015, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Faculty of Law at the University of Zurich.

Even in his advanced age, Professor Ullrich’s influence remains undiminished. His publications continue to be essential reading for anyone interested in the dynamics of intellectual property and competition law. Even his earlier works are still cited by academics today, a testament to their enduring relevance and impact.

The Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition congratulates Hanns Ullrich most sincerely on his 85^th birthday. We celebrate not only his remarkable career, but also his contributions to our community and the research fields of our Institute. His thinking is defined by intellectual rigour, integrity and his unwavering commitment to the pursuit of knowledge.

Prof. Herbert Hovenkamp's keynote speech opened the conference and set the scene by offering valuable insights into the latest intellectual property and antitrust issues. Distributed in several parallel sessions, the papers covered both horizontal, crosscutting issues as well as specific aspects related to standard essential patents, AI, patenting strategies in the pharmaceutical sector or press publishers’ rights, among others. A roundtable with industry representatives and legal practitioners helped to link the academic perspective to market realities, while the final debate with Hanna Anttilainen from the DG Competition at the European Commission offered an excellent opportunity to learn about and discuss current and future developments on innovation-related competition policy.