MIPLC - Munich Intellectual Property Law Center

The Law School

The MIPLC Partners

MIPLC is a project of four partners from two continents: the Max Planck Institute for Intellectual Property, Competition and Tax Law, the University of Augsburg, the Technische Universität München, and the George Washington University Law School.

These institutions have joined their skills and resources in order to offer the best possible education and the most outstanding research in the area of intellectual property - the law of innovation, creativity and competition.

The Program

MIPLC Graduates

The MIPLC program, jointly administered by the four MIPLC partners, aims to provide postgraduates with the necessary knowledge and skills to deal with intellectual property in a global context at the most sophisticated level.

The courses, which are held entirely in English, not only cover all areas of European and international intellectual property, competition, and media law, but also include topics from related fields such as economics and business administration.

The teaching methods heavily emphasize problem- and case-oriented learning, and training in litigation and negotiation skills forms an integral part of our classes. Students have numerous opportunities to practice their newly acquired skills in simulated court cases, workshops, internships and exams.

The international focus of the program ensures that students gain a truly global perspective on IP. Co-teaching of many classes by faculty members from Europe and the U.S. secures that most fields of law are treated from both the Civil Law and the Common Law point of view, so that at the end of the LL.M. course the graduates are most familiar with both legal systems. Furthermore, with a small student body composed of students from all over the world, who not only meet in class but share a student office hall, intercultural communication is a daily part of life at MIPLC.

At the MIPLC, optimal working conditions are considered very important. To this end, students are provided with individual workplaces including high-speed internet access and desktop access to a number of legal databases. Students also have at their disposal the world's most complete intellectual property library across the street at the Max Planck Institute, as well as MIPLC’s own library, which is stocked with a large selection of books on all areas and topics taught during the one-year course. Since this library is housed on the student office floor and is exclusively accessible to MIPLC participants, it provides students with immediate access to the most important literature in the areas of intellectual property and competition law.

To further support their studies, the program offers to its students special individual tutorial sessions. The tutors are highly qualified young members of the bar or members of the Max Planck Institute. The tutorials are one of the unique and innovative features of the LL.M. Program, and a core element of the effort to provide education of unsurpassed quality.

In recognition of the successful completion of the one-year program the University of Augsburg awards the degree of Master of Laws in Intellectual Property (LL.M. IP).

Location

Frauenkirche, Munich

With a population of over 1.2 million, Munich is the third-largest city in Germany and an important cultural and economic center. It has been ranked by Germans as the most livable city in Germany, and with a population of over 80,000 university students, it has plenty of attractions for students.

Munich is known as Europe's "Intellectual Property Capital" because it is the location of the European Patent Office, the German Patent and Trademark Office, the German Federal Patent Court, a large number of intellectual property attorneys, and a large number of companies in industries heavily dependent upon intellectual property, including Siemens, BMW, and many media and biotech companies.

The Bavarian State Opera and a number of theatres and concert halls are in the immediate neighborhood of the MIPLC, and many museums and other cultural and recreational attractions are nearby.

Summer Program

The George Washington University Law School, one of the four partners in the MIPLC, operates a four-week intellectual property summer program on the MIPLC premises.

In 2006, the summer program ran from July 3rd to July 29th, and has offered eight courses, six of which were open to enrollment from MIPLC LL.M. students as well. The program has also featured study visits to institutions such as the European Patent Office and the German Patent and Trademark Office.

Applicants may come from any part of the world, but must have some legal education and must demonstrate proficiency in English. Details about the program and its entrance requirements are available at http://www.law.gwu.edu/munichsummer/.