Professor Dr. Dres. h.c. Joseph Straus

Present and Previous Positions 

· 2018: Chief Expert of Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, Overseas Expertise Introduction Center for Intellectual Property Discipline Innovation in the New Era of Science & Technology Revolution, Wuhan

· 2015 – 2017: Visiting Professor of Law, Tsinghua University School of Law, Beijing

· 2011 – 2016: Chair IP Innovation Management, University of South Africa (UNISA), Pretoria

· 2009: Emeritus Director and Emeritus Scientific Member of the Max Planck Institute for Intellectual Property and Competition Law (now Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition

· 2001 – 2019: Marshall B. Coyne Visiting Professor of International and Comparative Law, George Washington University, Law School. Washington, D.C.

· 2003 – 2009: Chair of the Managing Board of the Munich Institute for Intellectual Property Center

· 2001 – 2009: Director (2001-2003 Managing Director) of the Max Planck Institute for Intellectual Property, Competition and Tax Law, Munich

· 2005: Distinguished Visiting Professor University of Toronto Faculty of Law

· 2003: Visiting Fellow of the Hoover Institution at the Stanford University.

· 1990: Honorary Professor (Honorarprofessor), Faculty of Law, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich

· 1989 – 1998: Visiting Professor of Law, Cornell Law School, Ithaca, N.Y.

· 1986: Titular Full Professor of Intellectual Property Law, University of Ljubljana

· 1977 – 2001: Senior Research Fellow and Head of Department, Max-Planck-Institute for Foreign and International Patent-, Copyright and Competition Law, Munich

· 1968 – 1977: Private practice 

Fields of Scholarship

· Intellectual Property and Competition Law

· European and International Patent Law

· Law of employees' inventions

· International Protection of IPR and World Economic Order

· Technology transfer

· IP arbitration

Honors and Awards 

· Honorary Doctorates, University of Ljubljana, 2001, University of Kragujevac, 2003

· Honorary Director of the Intellectual Property Institute of the Tongji University, Shanghai

· Honorary Professor Tongji University, Shanghai

· Honorary Professor Huazhong University for Science and Technology, Wuhan

· Honorary Director of the Chinese-German Institute for Intellectual Property, Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), Wuhan

· Honorary Professor, University of Xiamen

· Member Academia Europaea (2001), Chair of Law Section (2009 - 2015)

· Corresponding Member, Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (1995)

· Vice President, European Academy of Sciences and Arts, 2010 - 2015

· Katz-Kiley Fellow 1999 of the University of Houston Law Center

· Science Award 2000 (upon proposal of the Max-Planck Society for the Advancement of Science) of the Foundation for the German Science (Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft)

· Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (Großes Verdiendstkreuz des Verdienstordens der Bundesrepublik Deutschland), 2005

· Honorary Member, International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property (AIPPI), 2006

· Venice IP Award 2007 ("Premio Venezia per la Proprietà Intellettuale")

· Order of Merits, Republic of Slovenia 2010

· Ambassador of Science of the Republic of Slovenia, 2011

· Honorary Member, Deutsche Vereinigung für gewerblichen Rechtsschutz und Urheberrecht (GRUR), 2013

· Foreign Member („socio straniero“), Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Rome 2017

· Foreign Member of the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ANUBIH), Sarajevo, December 2018