Joseph Straus#

Marshall B. Coyne Visiting Professor of International and Comparative Law, George Washington University School of Law, Washington D.C.

Emeritus Scientific Member of the Max Planck Institute for Intellectual Property, Competition and Tax Law, Munich

Educations and Positions

Received Law-Diploma 1962 from University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, and 1968 Dr. jur. from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich. Habilitation in 1986 at University of Ljubljana. Private practise from 1968 to 1977; since then with the Max-Planck-Institute. Teaches European and German Patent Law at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich since 1990. Nominated Full Professor of Intellectual Property Law, University of Ljubljana5 (1986-). Visiting Professor of Law, Cornell Law School7, Ithaca, N.Y. (between 1989 and 1998); Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law, George Washington University School of Law (Spring 2001-5). Distinguished Visiting Professor University of Toronto Faculty of Law (2005).

Consultant

Consultant to OECD8, WIPO9, UNCTAD10, UNIDO, EC-Commission11, World Bank12, Scientific Services of the German Bundestag13 and the German Government, as well as the European Parliament, the European Patent Office, the Swiss Government and the Swiss Federal Institute for Intellectual Property. Vice-President German Association for Industrial Property and Copyright Law, Former President of the International Association for the Advancement of Teaching and Research in Intellectual Property (ATRIP14), Chair Programme Committee, International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property (AIPPI15) (1997-2006), Chair Intellectual Property Rights Committee of the Human Genome Organisation (HUGO) (1995-2006).

Areas of research

European and International Patent Law, Protection of Biotechnological Inventions, Law of Employee’s Inventions, International Protection of IPR and World Economic Order, Technology Transfer, IP Arbitration.

Awards, Honours and Memberships

• Diploma of Merits, International Association for the Advancement of Teaching and Research in Intellectual Property (ATRIP), 1991
• Medal of Merits, International Association for the Protection of Industrial Property (AIPPI), 1997
• Katz-Kiley Fellow 1999, University of Houston Law Center
• Science Award 2000 of the Foundation for the German Science17
• Doctor Honoris Causa (Dr. jur. h.c.), University of Ljubljana5, 2001 and University of Kragujevac, 2003
• Honorary Director of the Intellectual Property Institute of the Tongji University, Shanghai
• Honorary Professor, Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), Wuhan (2005-)
• Honorary Professor Tongji University, Shanghai
• Honorary Professor Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, and Honorary Director of its Chinese-German Institute for Intellectual Property
• Selected as one of the 50 most influential people in Intellectual Property in 2003, 2004 and 2005 by the Journal "Managing Intellectual Property".
• Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, 2005
• Corresponding Member of the Slovenian Academy of Science and Art
• Member Academia Europaea, Chair Law Section 2009-
• Vice President, European Academy of Sciences and Arts
• Member of Honour, International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property (AIPPI), 2006
• Inducted into IAM IP Hall of Fame 2007
• Venice IP Award 2007 ("Premio Venezia per la Proprietà Intellettuale"
• Honorary Professor, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 2009
• Order of Merit, Republic of Slovenia
• Ambassador of Science of the Republic of Slovenia, 2011
• Chair IP Innovation Management, University of South Africa (UNISA), Pretoria, 2011

• Standing Advisory Committee before the European Patent Organisation (SACEPO)(1998-2009)
• Advisory Board of the Research Fund of the European Patent Office, Munich (1998-2009)
• Advisory Board of the Worldwide Academy of the World, Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO)
• Standing Committee "Intellectual Property Rights" All European Academies (ALLEA)
• Executive Council of the Center for Advanced Study an Research on Intellectual Property (CASRIP) of the University of Washington, School of Law, Seattle
• International Board of Assessors, Intellectual Property Research Center, University of Melbourne
• Advisory Council of the McCarthy Institute for Intellectual Property and Technology Law, University of San Francisco School of Law
• Arbitrator with the International Court of Arbitration, Paris
• Member of the Advisory Board of the Intellectual Property Office of the Repbulic of Slovenia (1991 - 2003)
• Member of the Advisory Board of the Ifo Institute für Wirtschafsforschung, Munich (2002 - 2008)
• Member of the Advisory Board of Intellectual Property Rights Annual Journal, Peking
• Member of the Senate Commission on Basic Issues of Gene Re­search of the German Research Foundation (Senatskommission für Grundsatzfragen der Genforschung der DFG) 1993-1999
• Member of the Academia Europaea (2001-), Chair Law Section (2009-)
• Member of the Administrative Council, Center for International Industrial Property Studies (CEIPI), Université Robert Schuman (2001-2004)
• Member Advisory Board, Creative and Innovative Economy Center, The George Washington University Law School, Washington D.C.
• International Association for the Advancement of Teaching and Research in Intellectual Property (ATRIP), President (1993-1995), President Elect (1991-1993), Treasurer (1987-1991)
• International Association for the Protection of Industrial Property (AIPPI). Programme Committee (Member 1992-1994, Deputy Chairman 1994-1997, Chairman 1997-), Co-Chairman of Special Committee Q 144 - Publications (1998); Chairman of the Special Committee Q 114 - Biotechnology (1992-1998). Member of the Executive Committee since 1982; Member of the Board of the German National Group (1990-)
• Human Genome Organisation (HUGO), Chairman of the Intellectual Property Rights Committee (1995-2006)
• German Association for the Protection of Industrial Property and Copyright Vice-President (2005‑), Member of the Executive Board (2001-) and Member of the Committee for Plant Breedings (1986) and of the Committee for Patent- and Utility Models Law (1992-), Vice-President (2003-)
• Association Littéraire et Artistique International (ALAI)
• Association for Comparative Law
• Member EU Commission’s Expert Group on Biotechnological Inventions (2002-)
• Consultant to the OECD, Paris, on Biotechnology and Patent Protection, 1982-1985; 1991, 1995, 1996, 1999, 2000; Chair Expert Group on Guidelines for Licensing of Genetic Inventions (2004-2006)
• Consultant to World Intellectual Property Organization (WI­PO), Geneva, on Questions of Industrial Property Protec­tion of Biotechnological Inventions, 1985, 1986 and 1999
• Consultant to the Commission of the European Economic Com­munity for the preparation of the Draft for a Council Di­rec­tive on the Legal Protection of Bio­technological Inven­tions, 1987-1989; On the Future European Patent System, 1995-1996; and on "Strategic Dimensions of Intellectual Property Rights in the Context of Technology Policy" (ETAN Working Group) (1998-1999)
• Consultant to the Scientific Service of the German Bundestag (Parliament), 1996
• Consultant to the European Patent Organisation on the Introduction of a Grace Period, 2000
• Consultant to the German Federal Ministry of Justice, 2000
• Consultant to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Geneva, on the Impact of technologi­cal and commercial changes on policies and legislation affecting the creation and transfer of technologies, 1987/­1988
• Consultant to the United Nations Industrial Develop­ment Or­ganization (UNIDO), Vienna, 1989
• Consultant to the World Bank, Washington D.C., 1991
• Member of the Advisory Panel for the Human Genome Project and Patenting DNA Sequences, Office of Technology Assessment (OT­A), Congress of the United States, 1993-1994
• Consultant to the Ministry for Science and Technology of the Republic of Slovenia on the legislation in the fiel­d of em­ployees' inventions, 1993-1994
• Member of the Working Group of the Conference of the Presidents of German Universities (Deutsche Hochschulrektorenkonferenz) for the Preparation of Recommendations aimed to Incent Patent Applications from Universities and other Institutions of Higher Professional Education in Germany (Präsidial-Arbeitsgruppe zur Vorbereitung von Empfehlungen zur Förderung der Patentanmeldungen aus den Universitäten und Fachhochschulen in Deutschland) 1996
• Member of the Working Group on Bio-Sciences of the Technology Council of The German Federal Chancellor (Bundeskanzler) 1996
• Testified as Expert before the ”Committee on Legal Affairs and Citizen’s Rights”, European Parliament, Brussels, June 10, 1996
• Testified as Expert (”Auskunftsperson”) before the Special Committee on ”Gentechnik-Volksbegehren” of the Austrian Parliament, Vienna, October 24, 1997
• Testified as Expert before the Committee on Legal Affairs of the German Parliament (Bundestag) on the Protection of Spare Parts by Design Law, Berlin, September 24, 2003
• Testified as Expert before the Committee on Legal Affairs of the German Parliament (Bundestag) on Issues of Patenting Biotechnological Inventions, Berlin, September 29, 2004
• Member of the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center’s List of Neutrals, 2011