08/02/2021

Philipp Homar from the Center for Intellectual Property, Media and Innovation Law and Markus Fallenböck, Head of the Division of Finance and Human Resources, will contribute their expertise as professors at Johannes Kepler University Linz and Karl-Franzens-University of Graz, respectively, in addition to their activities at Danube University Krems.

It is the engagement with innovation and law that the two new university professorships in Linz and Graz have in common. Danube University Krems' strength and major concern is to facilitate a high level of knowledge and competence transfer in research and teaching.

Krems and Linz exchanging legal matters

As of 1 March 2021, Philipp Homar will take on a part-time appointment professorship for "Intellectual Property" at Johannes Kepler University Linz in accordance with section 98 of the "Universitätsgesetz" (Austrian University Act). In the course of this professorship Homar will be able to deepen his research on technical challenges and issues the legal system meets in the light of digitalization.

Homar studied law as well as theater, film and media studies at the University of Vienna and earned his doctorate in business law at the Vienna University of Economics and Business. Since 2016, he has been working at the Department for Legal Studies and International Relations at Danube University Krems. At the Center for Intellectual Property, Media and Innovation Law, he has been conducting research as a Senior Scientist since 2019, where he is responsible for the university courses "Intellectual Property and Competition" and "Data Protection and Privacy." In the future, Homar will continue to research and teach at Danube University Krems. "In order to dedicate oneself to the research subject of intellectual property, there are probably no more exciting places in Austria than Johannes Kepler University and Danube University Krems. Both universities offer opportunities for cross-disciplinary and application-oriented research at the interface between technology, law and society," says the lawyer, highlighting the similarities between his two places of work.

Bringing practical aspects into the lecture hall

In accordance with the Austrian University Act, Markus Fallenböck, was appointed the practice professorship at the Institute of Public Law and Political Science at the Karl-Franzens-University of Graz as of 30 December 2020, and will be active in the field of Smart Regulation until the end of 2025. Here, Fallenböck primarily dedicates his work to private law issues of digital products and platforms with a focus on data-driven marketing, fintechs and legal issues in digital product development.

Fallenböck is looking back on more than 20 years of experience in the legal and commercial implementation of digital transformation. On 1 December 2020, he took over the position Head of the Division of Finance and Human Resources at Danube University Krems, which he will continue to oversee in the future. Before that, he was managing partner at fintech Own360, of which he remains co-owner. "I am very pleased about the appointment in Graz. Combined with my management function as Head of Human Resources and Finance at Danube University Krems, I can thus support and contribute to the development of the academic world from both sides. At universities, we are occupied with the topic of digitization, in our internal processes and strongly in research and teaching," says Fallenböck.

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