Mrs. Cornelia Rudloff-Schäffer, President, German Patent and Trade Mark Office
Cornelia Rudloff-Schäffer was born in Bad Camberg/Taunus in 1957. After completing her Abitur (equivalent to A levels) she studied law, politics and journalism in Mainz. From 1984 to 1991, after the second State examination in law, she was a research fellow at Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Patent, Copyright and Competition Law (now MPI for Intellectual Property and Competition Law) in Munich and at the Department of Industrial Property Law of Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich.
In 1991, Ms. Rudloff-Schäffer joined the Federal Ministry of Justice (BMJ) in Bonn, where she first worked as deputy head of section on national legislative projects concerning patent and design law. Three years later, the focus of attention shifted to trade mark law.
In 1996, Ms. Rudloff-Schäffer was appointed head of section at the BMJ, where she was responsible for legal issues concerning new technologies in science and bioethics. In 1998, she returned to the field of industrial property protection.
In 2001, Ms. Rudloff-Schäffer returned to Munich to become Head of the Legal Division of the German Patent and Trade Mark Office (DPMA).
She heads the editorial team of the loose-leaf collection on industrial property protection “Taschenbuch für den gewerblichen Rechtsschutz” and has been co-author of the legal commentary “Schulte, Patentgesetz mit EPÜ” since 2004.
In September 2006, she was appointed Head of Department of Trade Marks, Utility Models and Designs.
On 1 January 2009, Ms. Rudloff-Schäffer took office as President of the DPMA.