Christoph Ann

Having graduated from law schools in Germany as well as in the U.S. (Duke Law) and having gained experience in legal practice, Professor Ann since 2003 has held the TUM School of Management’s Chair of Intellectual Property, the German speaking world’s oldest and largest chair of patents and trade secrets. Here and at the Munich Intellectual Property Law Center (MIPLC) Prof. Ann teaches patents & trade secrets including licensing and competition law and their respective business environments (IP strategy and management). A special interest Prof. Ann holds for Africa and the continent's IP landscape. His publications include seven books, among them the German speaking world’s leading treatise on patent law (1,100pp.), and more than 170 contributions to books and law review articles.

From 2001-2003, Prof. Ann also served as an IP judge on the Regional Court Mannheim’s renowned IP infringement panel. In 2018 he was nominated to Germany’s Federal Judges’ selection committee as a candidate for a judgeship at the German Federal Court of Justice. However, he declined the honor so as to stay in academia and be able to maintain his work’s international scope.

Prof. Ann often teaches abroad and has done so at eminent universities. At Tokio's Keio University he has been a Distinguished Guest Professor (Global) since 2017 and at GWU Law in Washington D.C. he is an Adjunct Professor. He also has served as an arbitrator in more than 20 arbitral proceedings and is a listed neutral with the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center. Last but not leat, he is Chairman of the Nuremberg Chamber of Commerce’s Standing Court of Commercial Arbitration.

In the second half of 2021 Prof. Ann was awarded a Reserarch Fellowship at the renowned Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study (STIAS), one of the world’s ten leading IAS’. Since 2021, he also has served on the German PTO's user council patents & utility models (DPMA-Nutzerbeirat Patente und Gebrauchsmuster) and in 2022 became member of the Free State of Bavaria State Government’s Ethics Council (Bayerischer Ethikrat).