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Newsletter #1 2026
Sixty Years of Research (1966–2026) – A Moment for Reflection
Dear readers, 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. In 2024, the Net Zero Lab was established – an independent Max Planck research group focused on innovations in climate technology, corporate decarbonization, and carbon markets. This newsletter also reflects that environmental topics are increasingly at the forefront of our research.
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
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Artificial intelligence can generate texts, images, and music in seconds that would take humans hours or days to create – and at a fraction of the cost. In a recent paper, Josef Drexl shows that traditional copyright law falls short in this area and argues for a radical paradigm shift. More
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A new study warns that efforts to reduce bureaucracy may fail due to a lack of information among the population. The representative survey conducted by the Institute has found that the majority of adults in Germany are unaware of new legal provisions allowing them to dispense with handwritten signatures in everyday transactions. However, some segments of the population are systematically better informed. More
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All too often, forests are reduced to a single figure: the amount of CO₂ they store. However, a new review in Science, to which the Net Zero Lab contributed, shows that forests do much more than that. They help mitigate climate change by cooling the local environment, regulating water cycles, and improving human health and well-being. The effects vary depending on the environmental context, with important implications for forest management and climate adaptation strategies. More
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At the invitation of Federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz, the Strategy Group for Technology and Innovation held its second meeting of the 21st legislative period. The Strategy Group continued its deliberations on the two topics established at the Inaugural Meeting on 6 November 2025: “Artificial Intelligence” and “Innovations in the Defense Sector.” In addition, options for strengthening the German innovation system were examined. More (in German)
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In Brief
Audio + + + In an interview with Deutschlandfunk about the Excellence Strategy, Dietmar Harhoff explains that cutting-edge research requires competition, minimal bureaucracy, and the right mindset. More (in German)
Lindau Matinee 2026 + + + #LINOecon Alumna Elisabeth Hofmeister was invited to introduce the audience to the work of Nobel laureates Joel Mokyr, Philippe Aghion, and Peter Howitt on sustainable growth and creative destruction. More
Lise Meitner Exzellence Program + + + The Max Planck Society is once again inviting outstanding researchers to apply for the position of Lise Meitner Research Group Leader across all scientific disciplines. Applications are open from 11 February to 15 April 2026. More
Max Planck Law | Tech | Society Inititative (MPLTS) + + + The 5th MPLTS Graduate Student Symposium will take place on 22 May 2026. Master’s and doctoral students are invited to submit their research papers on AI and law, algorithms, the ethics of AI, the social impact of AI technologies, and other related topics by 31 March. More
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The VII SIPLA Annual Conference on 13 May 2026, will address the question of how a sustainable hydrogen market can develop in Latin America that brings significant benefits to local communities and economies. Countries such as Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, and Colombia are advancing hydrogen strategies, thereby creating opportunities for industrial development while simultaneously presenting complex challenges related to infrastructure, regulation, and equitable development. In preparation, several workshops were held in Chile and Colombia in 2025. |
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Call for Papers
The Third Conference on IP, Competition, and Innovation will take place from 15 to 16 October 2026, in collaboration with the European University Institute (Florence). The participants will meet for the first time in Munich. Researchers in law and economics in the fields of IP, antitrust law, or innovation policy are invited to submit an unpublished paper in English by 30 April 2026. More
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Event Preview
As a partner institution of the TransforM Cluster of Excellence, the Institute invites you to the first installment of the public event series TransforM Futures: On Friday, 8 May 2026, the panel discussion “Let’s Talk About Moonshot Innovations” will take place in the Institute’s auditorium, featuring experts from academia and industry. The discussion will explore when, why, and how moonshot innovations emerge, scale-up, and effect real societal change. Following the discussion, there will be a chance for audience interaction and networking. Attendance at the event is free of charge. We kindly ask that you reserve a seat in advance. More
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Climate change is increasing the severity of extreme weather events, posing substantial risks for firms, investors, and the economy. Although quantifying such risks has become increasingly important, existing approaches for estimating the impacts from extreme weather events face major limitations. The authors propose a novel approach to identify and categorize firm-level impacts of extreme weather events from public corporate filings. It turns out that companies can not only lose, but also gain.
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Benedict Probst, head of the Net Zero Lab, has contributed to a new review highlighting ten recent advances in climate change research with high policy relevance, spanning diverse topics: (1) the global temperature jump of 2023–2024; (2) sea surface warming and marine heatwaves; (3) land carbon sinks; (4) interactions between climate change and biodiversity loss; (5) accelerated groundwater decline; (6) global dengue incidence; (7) income and labour productivity loss; (8) strategic considerations for scaling carbon dioxide removal (CDR); (9) integrity of carbon credit markets; and (10) policy mixes for climate change mitigation.
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Antitrust law as a tool for climate protection – that may sound unconventional, but it’s increasingly less far-fetched than it once seemed to be. Given Latin America’s potential to combat greenhouse gas emissions at the global level, Francisco E. Beneke Avila shows where competition authorities could take action today and where the legal framework reaches its limits. In his analysis, Beneke examines deforestation in the Amazon, the market power of large meat companies, and the global supply of lithium and copper.
Francisco E. Beneke Avíla
Competition Law in Latin America and Global Greenhouse Gas Emissions: The Way Forward
World Competition, 48 (1), 125–152
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Artificial intelligence is increasingly determining the prices we are offered when shopping online. Klaus Wiedemann, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute, has examined what this means, which laws protect us, and where further regulation is needed. More
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Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition
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