Patent Offices - Tasks, Incentives, Problems

Abstract: Patent offices grant patents. That makes them key stakeholders in all patent systems. Few people realise, that patent offices also have a business angle to them. They are cash cows. The German PTO alone contributes >EUR 250 mio annually to the German federal budget. Most of the business data are not public; at the European Patent Office (EPO) even less so than at the German DPMA, still the world's sixth largest national patent office.

However, said business angle does give rise to substantial questions. Three of which this seminar aims to address: 1) what are any patent offices primary tasks: strict examination or the generation of profits? 2) How does this incentivise patent office work? 3) Where does this lead?

Without spoiling too much, I predict that eventually we will be speaking about Munich's EPO, a European (non-EU!) institution tasked with granting European Patents (EP) for Britain.

Speaker: 

Prof. Dr. Christoph Ann LL.M. (Duke Univ.),  Chair of Intellectual Property, TUM School of Management and Munich Intellectual Property Law Center (MIPLC)

Having been educated in both, Germany and the U.S., Prof. ANN since 2003 has held the TUM School of Management’s Chair of Intellectual Property, the German speaking world’s oldest and biggest. Here and at the Munich Intellectual Property Law Center (MIPLC) Prof. ANN teaches patents & trade secrets. His publications include seven books, among them the German speaking world’s leading treatise on patent law (1,100pp.), and more than 170 contributions to books and law review articles.

From 2001-2003, Prof. ANN served as an IP judge on the Regional Court Mannheim’s renowned IP infringement panel and in 2018 was nominated as a candidate for a judgeship at the German Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof) to Germany’s Federal Judges’ Selection Committee (Richterwahlausschuss). However, he declined the honour so as to be able to stay in academia and maintain his work’s international scope.

Prof. Ann often teaches abroad and in the second half of 2021 was awarded a Research Fellowship by the renowned Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study (STIAS). For Africa and the continent's IP landscape Prof. Ann holds a special interest.

Since 2021, he has served on the German PTO's user council patents & utility models (DPMA-Nutzerbeirat Patente und Gebrauchsmuster) and since 2022 as a member of the Free State of Bavaria State Government’s Ethics Council (Bayerischer Ethikrat).