Joseph Straus, Dr. jur., Dres. jur. h.c. Prof. of Law (U. Munich and U. Ljubljana), Director Emeritus MPI, Munich, Former Chair Managing Board, MIPLC; Marshall Coyne Vis. Prof., GWU Law School, Washington DC; Visiting Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University; Hon. Prof., Tongji U. Shanghai; Hon. Prof. HUST, Wuhan and Hon. Prof. Xiamen University, Xiamen; Disting. Vis. Prof., U. Toronto (2005), Vis. Prof. Cornell U. Law School, Ithaca, N.Y. (1989-1998).

Born 1938 in Trieste/Italy, Dipl. in Law 1962 U. Ljubljana, Dr. jur. 1968, U. Munich, Habilitation 1986 U. Ljubljana. Private Practice 1966-1974, since then Max Planck Institute. Some 300 publ. Cons. to OECD, WIPO, UNCTAD, UNIDO, EC-Comm., World Bank, German Parl. and Gov., Europ. Parl., the EPO, the Swiss Gov. Chair IPRs Comm. HUGO (1995-2006), Chair Programme Comm. AIPPI (1997-2006), former Pres. ATRIP. Member Academia Europaea, Member and Dean Class of Legal, Social and Economic Sciences, Europ. Acad. Science and Arts, Corresp. Member Slov. Acad. of Sciences and Arts. Science Award 2000 Foundation for German Science, Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the FR Germany 2005. Member of Honor AIPPI (2006); Venice IP 2007 Award; Inducted into IAM IP Hall of Fame 2007.