Effective September 18, 2026, the Association for the Promotion of the M\u00fcnster Research Center for Intellectual Property Law (Verein zur F\u00f6rderung der Forschungsstelle f\u00fcr Gewerblichen Rechtsschutz M\u00fcnster e. V.) will be dissolved. At the same time, the Research Center for Intellectual Property Law will be closed. This marks the end of many years of the association\u2019s work, which has supported research, teaching, and dialogue with the legal profession at the Institute for Information, Telecommunications, and Media Law (ITM).<\/p>\n
The history of the research center dates back to the summer semester of 1998. Under the direction of Prof. Dr. Thomas Hoeren, an institution was established at the ITM with the goal of more firmly integrating intellectual property rights into university research and education and fostering dialogue between academia and industry. Since 1999, the Friends of the Center have supported this work. Companies, attorneys, patent attorneys, and other members have helped create a forum for discussing issues related to patent, trademark, design, and competition law.<\/p>\n
Among the most memorable moments were, above all, the presentations by renowned experts. For example, in January 2017, Prof. Dr. Karl-Heinz Fezer spoke about the scope of application of harmonized unfair competition law and the distinction between the consumer and non-consumer sectors. In February 2019, Prof. Dr. Mary-Rose McGuire addressed the question \u201cTrade Secrets: A New Form of Intellectual Property Protection?\u201d In February 2023, Thomas Weeg took the then-imminent launch of the Unified Patent Court as an opportunity to raise questions about the expected quality of its decisions. Such events combined fundamental academic questions with concrete challenges in legal practice.<\/p>\n
Education was a particular priority. The continuing education program in \u201cIndustrial Property Rights,\u201d spearheaded primarily by Prof. Dr. Jochen B\u00fchling, provided students and professionals with practical access to this area of law. In addition, the department supported emerging scholars through awards for outstanding academic achievements and, later, for dissertations.<\/p>\n
One example of the early shift toward digital educational offerings is the \u201cPatent License.\u201d As early as 2003, the research center, in collaboration with the patent licensing agency PROvendis, offered an online course that taught patent law even to those outside the field of law. With different focuses for academia and industry, the course covered fundamentals, procedures, and commercialization opportunities; it concluded with a test and a certificate. Later, the program was expanded to include a copyright module, becoming the \u201cIP License.\u201d This made knowledge about the protection of inventions and creative works accessible free of charge and from anywhere.<\/p>\n
We would like to express our gratitude to all members from renowned companies in the M\u00fcnsterland region, sponsors from the legal and business communities, speakers, and the staff who have made this work possible over the years. Their professional and personal dedication has shaped intellectual property law at ITM and opened the door for many students to explore this challenging and multifaceted area of law.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Effective September 18, 2026, the Association for the Promotion of the M\u00fcnster Research Center for Intellectual Property Law (Verein zur F\u00f6rderung der Forschungsstelle f\u00fcr Gewerblichen Rechtsschutz M\u00fcnster e. V.) will be dissolved. At the same time, the Research Center for Intellectual Property Law will be closed. This marks the end of many years of the […]\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":23693,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1061,1069,1067,1064],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-announcements","category-announcements-en","category-general","category-reports"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itm.nrw\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itm.nrw\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itm.nrw\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itm.nrw\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itm.nrw\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31786"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.itm.nrw\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31786\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31787,"href":"https:\/\/www.itm.nrw\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31786\/revisions\/31787"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itm.nrw\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itm.nrw\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itm.nrw\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itm.nrw\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}