Events

Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, Munich, Room E10

Technical interoperability and standards will play a key role for the functioning and the further development of the digital economy in times of the Internet of Things (IoT). Standardization is placed at the interface of technology, economics and the law. While the IoT is currently emerging as a technology paradigm, economists and lawyers will gradually grasp its regulatory implications. The Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition will hold a series of workshops that pursues a dual goals:

• to discuss with experts in which direction the IoT will develop with regard to specific areas where the Institute sees a need for standardization; and
• to identify and discuss the economic and regulatory implications of these changes.

Each workshop will address the different kinds of standards which in the Institute’s view are relevant for the IoT. The focus of the first workshop will be the IoT connectivity standards.

Without devices being able to connect and communicate to each other, the IoT will not succeed. Yet, the increased need for connectivity and interoperability creates numerous challenges. The workshop seeks to advance the discussion on these challenges by focusing on three areas:

• Technology and Market Landscape
• Standardization Landscape
• IPRs Landscape

The workshop will be held at the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition on April 25, 2017. Participation is by invitation only.

See Program

Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, Munich, Room E10

European Patent Office, Isar Building, Bob-van-Benthem-Platz 1, 80469 Munich,
Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, Marstallplatz 1, 80539 Munich

Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, Munich, Room E10

From March 16 to 18, 2017, the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition will organize the workshop “European Intellectual Property Rights and Jurisdiction in Need of a Grand Design?” which will focus on four areas:

• Legal Aspects: Union-wide IP Rights plus Copyrights: The Status Quo including the Role of the ECJ (chair: Matthias Leistner); Patents: The Status Quo including EPO and UPC and the Role of the ECJ (chair: Axel Metzger),
• Empirical Insights (chair: Annette Kur): EU Trade Mark Infringement Litigation; Patent Litigation,
• Deficits and Perspectives in the Jurisdiction of IP Rights (chair: Paul Torremans), and
• Conclusions: In Need of a Grand Design? (chair: Reto Hilty).

The goal of the workshop is to identify deficits and research perspectives for further developing the EU jurisdiction scheme.

The workshop will be held at the Harnackhaus in Berlin. Participation is by invitation only.

See Program 

Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, Munich, Room E10

Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, Munich, Room 313

The increasing ability to organize information and transmit it to the market is ushering in an era where economic actors are highly responsive to the market. These shifts are particularly pronounced in the emerging technology space of the Internet of Things. Central to these disruptive innovations is a change in business operations, which has altered the architecture and conceptualization in how interactions occur; a transformation, which the patent system has not necessarily caught up with yet. Against this background this study investigates what patent governance regimes are needed in a European Union context so to assure that the Internet of Things enables the success of Small- and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs). It does so, by means of a survey among SMEs active in the IOT space. In light of the evidence gathered, the study then identifies key components of 'good governance' for patent law and provide recommendations for policy makers that will allow to set the baseline for an 'Internet of Things for All.'

Contact person: Dr. Fabian Gaessler

Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, Munich, Room 313

We study the impact of the dual trademark system that was established in the European Union in 1996. Using a novel data set, we document that the new EU Trademark (EUTM) is a success story: the majority of new marks in EU Member States are now protected by the EUTM. The EUTM reduced the demand for national trademarks: on average, it crowded out 25% of national filings; this effect was much stronger for small countries and for foreign applicants. The EUTM also led to an overall increase in the number of marks protected in the EU, indicating easier market access. Finally, using a back-of-the-envelope calculation, we document that the EUTM generates substantial savings for the business sector. (Co-Author: Benedikt Herz)

Contact person: Dr. Fabian Gaessler

Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, Munich, Room 313

Why do some people become entrepreneurs when it is not optimal? We explore this question by disentangling two mechanisms that may have been confounded: overconfidence and attitude toward uncertainty. Following Frank Knight (1921), we further distinguish between two types of uncertainty: risk and ambiguity. In a laboratory experiment, we shock individuals’ level of confidence in their skills to causally identify the effect of overconfidence on entry into competitive markets. Moreover, we highlight the critical role of attitude toward ambiguity on entry: independent of their level of confidence, individuals exhibit ambiguity-seeking behavior when the result of the competition depends on their skills, which in turn leads to a higher level of entry. This preference for ambiguity can explain results that have previously been attributed to overconfidence. Finally, we observe that excess entry does not always occur but, rather, depends on the intensity of competition and whether the result of the competition depends on individuals’ skills (co-authored with Thomas Åstebro).

Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, Munich, Room E10