IGIR/IPKM expert lectures
Introduction IGIR/IPKM lecture series
The IGIR/IPKM expert lecture series addresses topics in the field of Innovation, Trade, Investment and Competition Law that are relevant to for today’s society. We invite speakers from academia and private practice to share insights on recent developments and to stimulate a debate with staff and students, in an informal setting.
All are welcome to attend.
Upcoming Lecture
The next lecture will take place on Thursday, 8 October 2026, from 18:30 to 20:30, featuring Prof. Dr. Ansgar Ohly, Chair of Private Law, Intellectual Property and Competition Law at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.
Lecture title: "Platform liability in EU copyright and trade mark law"
Abstract
Platforms are intermediaries. They do not offer infringing goods or upload infringing videos themselves. But they enable direct infringement. In many jurisdictions, platforms could be held liable under tort law doctrines of secondary infringement. However, in the EU general tort law has not been harmonised, and there is no EU law doctrine of indirect liability. Nevertheless, the CJEU attempts to find EU law solutions to platform liability. In copyright law, under the CJEU's broad concept of communication to the public even platforms can be held liable for infringement if they violate duties of care. In trade mark law, in contrast, liability depends on whether consumers can distinguish clearly enough between the direct infringer and the platform. The lecture will analyse the CJEU case-law, address the influence of the Digital Services Act (DSA), explore the possibilities of a uniform approach to all IP rights (which might even also apply to AI service providers) and point out that platforms increasingly take the law into their own hands by taking down content which violates the platform's own community standards.
Bio Ansgar Ohly
Prof. Dr. Ansgar Ohly holds the Chair of Private Law, Intellectual Property and Competition Law at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. After having served as Dean of the LMU Law Faculty from 2024-2026, he is now the Vice-dean. He is also a Visiting Professor at the University of Oxford and a Visiting Senior Member of St Peter’s College, Oxford.
He studied law at the universities of Bonn and Cambridge (LL. M.). Prior to joining the Munich Faculty of Law, he was a senior researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition and, subsequently, a professor at the University of Bayreuth.
His main fields of academic interest are all areas of intellectual property law and the law of unfair competition law, with a special emphasis on European developments and on the comparison of civil law and common law systems. He is a co-editor of GRUR, the leading German intellectual property journal, and of the copyright law commentary founded by Gerhard Schricker. His publications include commentaries on the German Act against Unfair Competition, the German Trade Secrets Act and a large number of articles in both English and German on patent, copyright, trade mark and unfair competition law.
