Born in Fürstenfeldbruck in 1962, he studied law in Munich and Geneva. He obtained his doctorate in Munich in 1990 and a Master of Laws degree from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1993. He completed his habilitation in civil law, commercial and business law, intellectual property and copyright law, European law and comparative law in Munich in 1996. From 1997, he was a professor of civil law and European business law in Würzburg, and from 2000 to 2006, he was a professor of civil law, European and international business law in Munich. Since 2007, he has been an honorary professor at the University of Munich (LMU). He became Director of the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition in 2002, working full-time from 2007. Since 2009, he has headed the Munich Intellectual Property Law Centre (MIPLC), which offers an English-language Master's degree program in Intellectual Property and Competition Law. In 2009, he was appointed to the International Advisory Board of the American Antitrust Institute, and in 2010 he was appointed a member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities.