Friedrich Karl Beier

Beier was for many years the managing director of the Max-Planck Institute for Foreign and International Patent Trademark Copyright and Competition Law in Munich. He took over the leadership of the Institute from its founder, Eugen Ulmer, and it was during Beier’s reign that the Institute expanded and flourished. Over the decades, the Institute has influenced the development of jurisdiction and legislation in the field of intellectual property in many ways across Europe. By way of example, the Institute influenced the European harmonisation of unfair competition law, trademark law and legislation on design rights, copyright and the patenting of biotechnological inventions.