Horst Becker

Born in 1960, chartered attorney since 1991. As Rechtsanwalt (attorney-at-law) he is a member of the chamber of attorneys at Munich Oberlandesgericht (appellate court).

He studied German law and politics at the universities of Tübingen, Geneva and Bonn, as well as French trade and commercial law at Paris University (Panthéon-Sorbonne). He is a graduate of the international faculty for comparative law in Strasbourg and has held the position of national correspondent at the British Institute of International and Comparative Law in London.

He undertook his legal training, inter alia, with the international board of arbitration at the federal chamber for economy in Vienna, and in the division of franchise counselling at Ernst & Young in London.

He currently teaches at the University of Strasbourg III (Robert Schumann), at the Centre d'Études Internationales de la Propriété Intellectuelle (CEIPI), and at the Centre d'Études Internationales de la Franchise (CETIF). He also holds seminars on the law of trademarks via Beck-Seminare.

His publications include:

• A contribution to the practical guidebook Franchising, edited by C.H. Beck publishers (2003). Here, some 150 pages deal with the forms and consequences of the termination of franchise contracts.
• He is co-author of "Traité des Dessins et Modèles" published by Litec in France (8th edition, 2008) and describes the German law of design protection.
• He is co-author of the book "La Publicité et la Loi" published by Litec in France (10th edition, 2004), describing the German law in the fields of particular relevance for the advertising industry (civil and trade law, the law of intellectual property and copyright, as well as competition law).

In addition, he is co-editor of the special edition "Publicité" (advertising) of the Gazette du Palais, one of France's most important legal journals.

His main areas of specialisation are: Franchising and the law of marketing and sales, the protection of industrial property, the laws of competition and of intellectual property as well as copyright, company law, and arbitration.

Languages: German, French, English, some Spanish and Italian

Memberships: GRUR German association for the protection of industrial property and the law of intellectual property and copyright, DFV German Franchise Union, DID German Institution for Arbitration.