Miscellaneous  |  03/01/2026

Sixty Years of Research (1966–2026) – A Moment for Reflection

Founded on 1 March 1966, the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Patent, Copyright and Competition Law was originally established to pursue fundamental legal research on intellectual property law. The Instituteʼs work has informed legislative developments at the national, European, and international levels, and it continues to promote evidence-based discourse among academia, policymakers, industry, and society.

However, complex innovation processes, their determinants, and implications cannot be understood from a single disciplinary perspective. In 2013, a new department for Innovation and Entrepreneurship Research was added to conduct broader analyses. Combining legal and economic perspectives allows us to better assess the effects of rules, institutions, and the implications of technological change, especially in an era shaped by digitalization and increasingly open and collaborative innovation models. Renamed the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition in 2014, our Institute has contributed to a deeper understanding of how innovation and competition interact, how they are shaped by legal and economic frameworks, and how regulation impacts them.


Equally central to the Institute’s mission is promoting early-career researchers. Each year, scholars from around the world join the Institute to pursue doctoral and postdoctoral research, benefit from the infrastructure and library, and contribute to a vibrant global academic community. Initiatives such as the Munich Intellectual Property Law Center (MIPLC) further connect research, teaching, and practice through international legal education.


Today, after 60 years of research, the Institute’s commitment remains unchanged: to conduct independent, foundational research and to provide insights that help to understand and shape the evolving nexus of innovation, competition, and regulation.


The Institute took the anniversary as an opportunity to revamp the Institute’s webpage.
Have a look: The Institute