Frequently Asked Questions

Yes, we were accredited in 2009 by the accreditation agency ACQUIN.

We regret but the LL.M. does not qualify you for the bar. It is a specialized study program within the field of IP and competition law.

We regret, but the LL.M. does not qualify you for the German or European patent bar.

To become a German patent attorney, you must fulfill certain requirements and undergo specialized training.

To become a European Patent Attorney, you must pass the European Qualifying Examination (EQE).

Our LL.M. program "Intellectual Property and Competition Law" is taught in English.

No, you don’t. The program is taught completely in English. All professors and administrative staff speak English. On the other hand, you will not get extra points in the evaluation of your application for your language skills.

Our LL.M. program "Intellectual Property and Competition Law" is a full-time program. We regret, but we do not offer part-time studies.

We strongly discourage you from working while studying at the MIPLC. Our program is very intense and demanding, and generally does not leave much time for other activities. We think that you had better focus your energies on your studies.

The tuition for the entire program is 26,000 EUR per person. Other charges apply.

This is theoretically possible, depending on seat availability in the classroom. Charges apply per credit hour. Please contact us for further details.

A certain number of courses are open to enrolment by MIPLC students. However, this is at the discretion of GW Law. All students will be informed of available courses in due time.

“ECTS” is an acronym for “European Credit Transfer Scheme.” It is part of the “Bologna Process” that aims at creating a unified European university landscape, where credits gained at one university can freely be transferred to another.

No, it is not. Participation is fully optional.

The Washington study trip is a non-credit activity.

No, it is not. Participation is voluntary.

In order to successfully complete the LL.M. program and to graduate from the MIPLC, students must gain 60 CP (credit points):

• 21 CP from the mandatory Basic Courses module;
• 21 CP from the elective Specialized Courses modules;
• 18 CP from the Master's thesis. 

All applicants to our LL.M. program must have at least:

• A Bachelor's degree (or equivalent) in law, economics, business administration, natural sciences, engineering, IT, literature, or media sciences (240 ECTS credits);
• One year of relevant professional experience;
• Very good knowledge of the English language.

Please refer to the other FAQ for detailed explanations. Thank you.

No, you don’t. The program is taught completely in English. All professors and administrative staff speak English. On the other hand, you will not get extra points in the evaluation of your application for your language skills.

To start your studies at the MIPLC, you must have gained at least 240 ECTS credits (generally equivalent to a four-year Bachelor’s degree). At the MIPLC, you will gain 60 ECTS credits, amounting to a total of 300 ECTS credits, which is the minimum required for the Master’s level.

If you have fewer than 240 ECTS credits, e.g. because you only have a three-year Bachelor degree, we can recognize additional credits you have gained from professional experience. You can earn a maximum of 60 ECTS credits that way. However, you must then have at least two years of professional experience: one year for the extra credits, and another year to satisfy the professional-experience requirement.

Please contact us for more details.

Our LL.M. program is a “program of further study” (“weiterbildender Studiengang” in German). Under German law, such programs, which are clearly designed for professionals, are open only to applicants with at least one year of professional experience. It is thus a legal requirement.

If you have fewer than 240 ECTS credits, e.g. because you only have a three-year Bachelor degree, we can recognize additional credits you have gained from professional experience. You can earn a maximum of 60 ECTS credits that way. However, you must then have at least two years of professional experience: one year for the extra credits, and another year to satisfy the professional-experience requirement.

"Relevant" means that your experience should either be related to intellectual property, or to the subject of the qualifying degree. This means, for example, experience as an engineer if your qualifying degree is in engineering, experience in law if your qualifying degree is in law, and so on.

Apart from actual employment in a paid position, we can also accept as professional experience any of the following:

• internships,
• work as a research assistant, and
• the German "Referendariat".

As our program is taught exclusively in English, all students must have a very high level of active and passive knowledge of English. We therefore require all applicants to submit score report sheets for a TOEFL, IELTS, or Cambridge CPE not older than three years.

The acceptable minimum scores are as follows:

• TOEFL - 100 points (internet-based), 250 points (computer-based), 600 points (paper-based);
• IELTS - 7.0;
• CPE - "C".

Yes, we charge a fee of 50 EUR per application, payable in cash, by foreign draft, or by bank transfer. This fee is payable by all applicants, including applicants for the DAAD scholarship.

Please refer to the instructions on our website or in the FAQ for further details.

Please go to our Admissions page and read the information provided there carefully. Then go to our electronic application form and complete it online. If you would like to apply for financial assistance and/ or the DAAD scholarship, check the relevant boxes at the end of the form and also complete the Financial Assistance Application Form that opens automatically.

Once you have completed the form(s), click on the "Send" button. Your data will be transmitted to the MIPLC. The system will automatically generate a PDF file of your application form(s), which you must print, sign, and send to the MIPLC along with supporting documentation as detailed in the instructions.

Please note: We can only process complete and original applications. If you simply send your application forms electronically without following up with the originals; or if you send us only your signed application form(s) without any of the required documentation, we cannot process your application. This means that you will not be admitted to the MIPLC, will not be considered for financial assistance, and/ or will not be considered for the DAAD scholarship.

No. We can only accept original applications. Please submit your application file by postal or courier service.

Please note: This applies to all applications, whether you are applying for admission, for financial assistance, and/ or for the DAAD scholarship.

In general, we get about twice as many applications for financial assistance as we have places on the program. It is therefore quite obvious that not all applications will be granted.

Financial Assistance Applications that do not fulfil formal requirements, or that we consider ungrounded, will be rejected. Those applicants may attend the program as full-paying students if they wish and if places are still available.

Those applicants that would in general qualify for any type of tuition waiver but who are not selected in the initial round will be placed on a scholarship waiting list. They will move up that list if any of the people in front of them decline our offer. Of course, they, too, can join the program as full-paying students if they wish and if places are still available.

All admitted applicants will receive the same letter informing them of admission and asking for a tuition deposit of 2,000 EUR, regardless of whether they have applied for financial assistance or not.

Payment of the tuition deposit will guarantee your spot on our program.

Please note: The tuition deposit is non-refundable. Therefore, you should only make it if you will attend the MIPLC regardless of the outcome of your financial assistance application. If your application for financial assistance is turned down and you consequently cannot attend our program, you will lose your tuition deposit.

A certain number of places are reserved for students attending our program on financial assistance every year. You may therefore defer accepting admission until the tuition waiver scholarships have been allocated (this usually happens by early June). Still, we cannot guarantee that once our application deadline is over and once the tuition waiver scholarships have been allocated, there will be enough open spots to accommodate everyone. In this case, we will set up a waiting list.

To illustrate this point, we would like to draw your attention to the fact that for the academic year 2009/10, the MIPLC received a total of 98 applications for 30 places. Of these 98 applicants, 58 filed an application for financial assistance in the form of a tuition waiver. While most of the applicants were very well qualified for our program and – generally speaking – would have been eligible for a scholarship, it is quite simply not possible to grant a tuition waiver to each and every one of them.

Our general application deadline is April 30. This means that we must receive your complete application file by April 30. We accept applications from November on for the coming academic year, which will start the following October.

Please note that different application deadlines apply for the DAAD scholarship.

This will depend on whether we have any open slots left on our program. Please contact us by email or phone before sending your file.

Please note: Applications for financial assistance received after April 30 will not be taken into consideration.

No, you don't. We process complete applications from December on and will admit qualified candidates on a rolling basis.

Yes, of course.

We will gladly issue confirmation documents for you, e.g. of previous contact between you and us, if they are needed for a scholarship application to an outside organization.

In exceptional circumstances, we will also process applications for admission before December of the year preceding the targeted academic year. Please contact us well in advance.

Please submit your entire application for the DAAD scholarship "Postgraduate Courses for Professionals with Special Relevance to Developing Countries" in one package and to one addressee. This means that you should submit all application forms (for admission to the MIPLC, for MIPLC financial assistance, and for DAAD scholarship) together with all supporting documentation. If you send part of your application to, for example, the DAAD country office, and another part to the MIPLC directly, you will only create confusion.

We recommend that you send your entire application directly to the MIPLC.

Please note: This information applies only to the DAAD scholarship "Postgraduate Courses for Professionals with Special Relevance to Developing Countries". Procedures for other DAAD scholarships may vary. Please check with the DAAD.

To apply for the DAAD scholarship, please complete the MIPLC online application form and, at the end of the form, check the boxes for financial assistance and the DAAD scholarship. Our Financial Assistance Application Form will automatically open. Please complete this form as well, then print it and add the required documents.

In addition, you must complete the DAAD application form, which is also available for download on our website. Please also read the DAAD brochure, available for download on our website, very carefully and make sure you have all required documents ready. Please also note the special application deadlines:

• July 31 if submitting your application to the German Embassy in your home country or to the DAAD Country Office;
• August 31 if submitting your application to the DAAD Head Office in Bonn;
• October 15 if submitting your application to the MIPLC directly.

Special application deadlines apply for the DAAD scholarship "Postgraduate Courses for Professionals with Relevance for Developing Countries". If you are interested in this scholarship, you must apply at least one year in advance. The deadlines for receipt of your application file are as follows:

• July 31 if submitting your application to the German Embassy in your home country or to the DAAD Country Office;
• August 31 if submitting your application to the DAAD Head Office in Bonn;
• October 15 if submitting your application to the MIPLC directly.

We recommend sending your application directly to the MIPLC, unless you are from Cameroon, Myanmar or Nigeria, in which case you must submit your application to the German Embassy in your country.

If you are applying for any DAAD funding other than this program, other deadlines may apply. Please check with DAAD.

If you have missed the deadline of July 30 (submission of your application at the German Embassy in your country, or at the DAAD Country Office), you can still submit your application to the MIPLC directly, or to the DAAD Head Office in Bonn. Since you will be sending your documents to Germany anyway, we recommend that you send them directly to the MIPLC.

The MIPLC will accept applications for the DAAD scholarship "Postgraduate Courses for Professionals with Relevance for Developing Countries" until October 15 of the preceding year.

If you have missed that deadline, your application can no longer be accepted for this scholarship. However, you can still submit your application for admission to the MIPLC and for financial assistance to us. We will accept all such applications that reach us by April 30.

If you think about applying, please study the admissions criteria on our website carefully. All applications, including CVs, are assessed against these criteria. Ask yourself if you match these criteria. If you do, your chances of admission are quite good. If you have any doubts, you may submit your CV to us by email. We can tell you whether, based on your CV, it would make sense for you to pursue an application, or whether you would be rejected right away because you do not fulfil our requirements.

Please note, however, that we cannot make any binding statements. The decision of whether or not you will be admitted rests with the Admissions Committee and is based on your complete application file.

Yes, you can. However, we will not process your application before it is complete. You should make sure we receive the missing documents as quickly as possible, and before the application deadline.

Applications for the DAAD scholarship must be complete by October 15, including English test scores.

You should be informed about the result of your application at the beginning of the calendar year, i.e., January or February.

If you are admitted to the program, we will send you a letter with further information. This letter will include an acceptance form and payment instructions for a deposit payment that we require to guarantee your participation. You have four weeks from the date of our letter to make your deposit payment.

If we do not receive your deposit payment within four weeks (e.g., because you have applied for a tuition waiver scholarship and want to await the scholarship decisions), we will automatically move you to waiting-list status. This means that you keep your admission status, but your participation is not necessarily guaranteed.

Admission is valid only for the academic year for which it is granted. If you want to defer your application to the following academic year, please contact us. Your application will have to be reactivated, and will be evaluated again for admission.

Despite your admission status at another university, you will still have to apply for admission to the MIPLC. This is also true if you have been admitted at one of the MIPLC’s partner institutions, e.g. the George Washington University Law School.

The exact timeframe depends on the workload the members of the Admissions Committee have to cope with. We generally try to complete the evaluations within two to three weeks of receiving a complete application.

Upon receipt, your application is reviewed to ensure that it is complete. We will send you an email confirmation of receipt and, if applicable, request you to hand in any missing documents. We will only consider complete applications for admission. You will be notified about the evaluation result by both e-mail and mail.

Since the number of places is limited to 30, admission runs on a competitive basis. This means that applicants are selected strictly on criteria focused on academic and personal achievements. Because complete applications are reviewed in incoming order, it is to your advantage to submit all requested documents as early as possible.

If you need an early response to your application, e.g. because you are simultaneously applying for a scholarship and must meet a deadline or include a statement from the MIPLC in your scholarship application, please inform us accordingly. We will be happy to support you in any way possible.

If you have been admitted to the MIPLC, you will receive a letter informing you accordingly. Any admission is only valid for the academic year for which you have applied. That is, if you are accepted into the program but cannot attend, you will have to apply again for any of the following academic years.

As a certain number of admitted applicants will decide not to study at the MIPLC for various reasons, we will admit more than the thirty students for whom we have places. This means that admission does not yet guarantee participation. In order to secure your spot on our program, we ask that you complete, sign, and return to us the Acceptance Form that is enclosed with your admissions letter, and that you transfer a non-refundable tuition deposit of 2,000 EUR to our account within four weeks.

The Acceptance Form is valid only in conjunction with your deposit payment. Therefore, please return the form to us only if you are sure you will definitely be attending our program, either because you have sufficient funding or because you have received a tuition waiver from us. If you have filed a scholarship application, returning the form to us will not increase your chances of financial assistance.

All admitted applicants will receive the same letter and payment instructions, regardless of whether they have applied for financial assistance or not.

We understand that some of our applicants require financial assistance and are unable to make the deposit payment within the specified period. Applicants may of course defer accepting admission until the tuition waiver scholarships have been allocated (this usually happens by early June). However, please understand that your spot may be given to another (paying) student after your deadline for the deposit payment has passed. You will keep your admission status but may lose your spot.

A certain number of places are reserved for students attending our program on financial assistance every year. Still, we cannot guarantee that once our application deadline is over and once the tuition waiver scholarships have been allocated, there will be enough open spots to accommodate everyone. In this case, we will set up a waiting list.

To illustrate this point, we would like to draw your attention to the fact that for the academic year 2009/10, the MIPLC received a total of 97 applications for 30 places. Of these 97 applicants, 58 filed an application for financial assistance in the form of a tuition waiver. While most of the applicants were very well qualified for our program and – generally speaking – would have been eligible for a scholarship, it is quite simply not possible to grant a tuition waiver to each and every one of them.

Therefore, if we do not grant your application for a tuition waiver, it means simply that we found a better combination of need and merit in someone else. If your application for a scholarship has been turned down, we ask you to please kindly refrain from contacting us to ask for an explanation. We understand your disappointment, but we will not make any statements about why your application was unsuccessful, what was special about the successful applications, and how you could have had better chances of success.

We thank you for your understanding and wish you the best of success.

Yes, we charge a fee of 50 EUR per application, payable in cash, by foreign draft, or by bank transfer. This fee is payable by all applicants, including applicants for the DAAD scholarship.

Please refer to the instructions on our website or in the FAQ for further details.

We charge an application fee of 50 EUR per applicant. To pay this fee, you have the following three options:

• Cash is generally the easiest option for us, as we will have instant proof of your payment and no fees to pay. There is of course a certain risk involved that the money might be stolen from your envelope, but thus far, this has not happened. We can only accept Euro banknotes;
• If you send a foreign draft/ check, it must be in EUR and drawn on a German bank, such as Deutsche Bank, Postbank, JP Morgan Frankfurt, etc. If you send us one of your regular personal domestic checks, in which you have possibly even struck out the printed currency symbol and replaced it manually with the € sign, we will not be able to clear it and will therefore reject it. Please talk to your bank before sending us anything. Your foreign draft must be made payable to the University of Augsburg. Foreign drafts made payable to the MIPLC will be rejected;
• Wire transfer services are available at many banks. If you use a wire transfer, please add proof of payment to your application, as it may take a few weeks for your payment to be credited to our account. Please note: you will have to bear the sending and receiving banks' charges, so that the full 50 EUR will be credited to our account.

We regret that we cannot accept any payments made through services such as XOOM that will not transmit your name and the reference to us!

If paying by cheque, it is not necessary to indicate a reference.

Please note that your cheque must be made out to Universitaet Augsburg, and that it must be drawn on a German bank.

To make payments by bank transfer, please use the following account information:

Recipient's name: Staatsoberkasse Bayern
Bank Name: Bayerische Landesbank
Reference: UniAug 8067 MIPLC application fee [YOUR NAME]

a) Account Information for International Transfers:

SWIFT Code: BYLADEMM
Bank Name: IBAN: DE 74 7005 0000 0001 2792 82

b) Account Information for Domestic Transfers (from within Germany):

Account No. (Konto): 12 79 282
Bank Code (BLZ): 700 500 00

When paying your application fee by bank transfer, please make sure that you indicate the following reference:

UniAug 8067 MIPLC application fee [YOUR NAME]

Please use exactly this reference so the bank can allocate your payment. If you modify the reference or leave out anything, our bank might reject your payment, which will probably result in fee payments for you.

Please include a copy of your bank transfer confirmation with your application file.

We regret, but we are unable to accept credit card payments.

As far as we know, Western Union and similar services operate on the principle of personal pick-up. This means that you must indicate a natural person as the recipient of your payment, and this natural person must collect your payment from a pick-up point.

We regret that we have no resources at all to personally collect your payments and therefore cannot accept Western Union payments.  

If, by contrast, you can get Western Union or a similar service provider to deposit your payment directly into our bank account, you are very welcome to use their services.

We regret very much, but we cannot accept payments via Xoom and comparable services.

The reason for this is that Xoom will not transmit our reference with payments. However, without this reference it will not be possible to allocate your payment.

We ask for your understanding and apologize for the inconvenience.

Yes, we do.

On our website, please go to "LL.M. IP" and then to "Admissions". Here you will be able to access our online application system. Please complete the application form online. After you have sent the data to us, please print the form and sign it, then send it to us with the required documents attached.

When you print your completed online application form, the system will automatically provide a list of required documents. Please make sure you attach all required documents to your application, as incomplete files cannot be processed.

No. We kindly ask you to refrain from stapling your application, and especially from stapling the entire set of documents together with a particulary strong staple. In order to process your application, we will have to remove the staple again.

You are welcome to use paper clips, however.

All applications are evaluated on the basis of the required documents only.

We ask you to please refrain from sending us additional materials. It will help your application much more if you focus on the required documents, but submit these in a complete and timely manner.

Among others, the following are NOT required: certificates of participation; certificates of merit; print-out of correspondence with MIPLC staff members; articles and research papers (published or unpublished); research project suggestions; contributions to blogs.

Please don't.

About 90% of our applicants have completed the WIPO "General Course on Intellectual Property". This means that adding your certificate (especially in multiple languages!) does not give you an edge over your competitors. The same applies to any other course or seminar you may have attended. It does, however, add unnecessary bulk to your application file. We have limited space for storing applications and will therefore have to remove and destroy any additional but unsolicited documents you submit.

It is much more important for the success of your application that you submit all the required documents.

We require copies of your university diplomas and transcripts, but not of other training you have undertaken.

You are welcome to list any training courses you have taken in your CV, but please refrain from sending us certificates of participation.

Thank you for your understanding.

No. We can only accept original applications. Please submit your application file by postal or courier service.

Please note: This applies to all applications, whether you are applying for admission, for financial assistance, and/ or for the DAAD scholarship.

We do not return any application documents.

If your application is unsuccessful, or if you are admitted but decide to not join our program, your documents will be destroyed.

Please add an official letter/ statement from your university confirming that no ranking takes place. This letter must be in English or German or, if it is in any other language, accompanied by a certified translation.

The information below refers to certifications accepted by the MIPLC. If you are applying for the DAAD scholarship, please check with DAAD, as they may have other standards!

If you cannot provide original documents, e.g. because your university issues only one diploma and one set of transcripts, you will have to provide certified copies of the originals.

This means that your university, a notary, or any comparable institution places an official stamp and signature on the photocopy to certify that they are true copies of the original. This will show us that you have not manipulated the copies to, for instance, have them show better grades than you actually achieved.

If you provide documents that were issued in a language other than German or English, they must be accompanied by a certified translation. This means that you must take them to an official translator authorized to translate from the document's language to English or German. The official translator will translate your documents and place his/ her official stamp on the translation to certify that this is a correct translation of the original.

Your documents can be translated into either English or German.

"Home-made" translations will not be accepted.

No, the MIPLC does not have a specific format for the letters of recommendation. Content is more important than form: The letters should help gain us a better impression of you.

However, please make sure your letters are printed on office/ university stationery, signed, and of recent date.

We leave this decision to you.

It is obviously in your interest to provide letters that convey significant information, so you may wish to consider your current situation and decide on that basis. If you have worked for the past five years, it makes more sense to provide a letter from a supervisor than from a former professor. If you have recently completed a study program, it is usually a good idea to provide a professor's reference. It is perfectly acceptable to provide one professional and one academic reference, too. 

Please note: if you are applying for the DAAD scholarship, you are required to submit one professional and one academic reference. Please refer to the DAAD scholarship program brochure for more information.

Yes, you can. However, we will not process your application before it is complete. You should make sure we receive the missing documents as quickly as possible, and before the application deadline.

Applications for the DAAD scholarship must be complete by October 15, including English test scores.

Yes, you can.

If your application is otherwise complete, it can be processed for preliminary admission. However, you will not be granted full admission status until we receive your test results.

NB: Applicants for the DAAD scholarship must submit their test results to MIPLC by October 15. We cannot make any exceptions.

In the meantime, if you can provide evidence of anything else that may prove the high level of your English, such as participation in a study program at an English-speaking university (even if you have not graduated from that university), please add it to your application.

Our general application deadline is April 30. This means that we must receive your complete application file by April 30. We accept applications from November on for the coming academic year, which will start the following October.

Please note that different application deadlines apply for the DAAD scholarship.

April 30.

Your complete application file including your application for admission, your application for financial assistance, and all required documents must reach us by April 30.

Please note: this is the deadline for MIPLC tuition waivers only. Different application deadlines apply for the DAAD scholarship.

We are aware that our application deadline is early and that other programs accept applications until just a few weeks before the start of the academic year. However, these programs ofter have mostly German/ European students. The MIPLC, by contrast, has a large number of non-European students who must apply for visas in order to study in Germany. If they only got admitted in September, they would invariably miss the first few weeks of the program.

This will depend on whether we have any open slots left on our program. Please contact us by email or phone before sending your file.

Please note: Applications for financial assistance received after April 30 will not be taken into consideration.

Special application deadlines apply for the DAAD scholarship "Postgraduate Courses for Professionals with Relevance for Developing Countries". If you are interested in this scholarship, you must apply at least one year in advance. The deadlines for receipt of your application file are as follows:

• July 31 if submitting your application to the German Embassy in your home country or to the DAAD Country Office;
• August 31 if submitting your application to the DAAD Head Office in Bonn;
• October 15 if submitting your application to the MIPLC directly.

We recommend sending your application directly to the MIPLC, unless you are from Cameroon, Myanmar or Nigeria, in which case you must submit your application to the German Embassy in your country.

If you are applying for any DAAD funding other than this program, other deadlines may apply. Please check with DAAD.

This deadline has been determined by the DAAD. Please enquire there.

Very strict.

Your complete application with all required documents must have reached the MIPLC by October 15. If any documents (this includes, for instance, your TOEFL/ IELTS score report) are still missing by October 15, you will not be considered for the DAAD scholarship.

If you have missed the deadline of July 30 (submission of your application at the German Embassy in your country, or at the DAAD Country Office), you can still submit your application to the MIPLC directly, or to the DAAD Head Office in Bonn. Since you will be sending your documents to Germany anyway, we recommend that you send them directly to the MIPLC.

The MIPLC will accept applications for the DAAD scholarship "Postgraduate Courses for Professionals with Relevance for Developing Countries" until October 15 of the preceding year.

If you have missed that deadline, your application can no longer be accepted for this scholarship. However, you can still submit your application for admission to the MIPLC and for financial assistance to us. We will accept all such applications that reach us by April 30.

As our program is taught exclusively in English, all students must have a very high level of active and passive knowledge of English. We therefore require all applicants to submit score report sheets for a TOEFL, IELTS, or Cambridge CPE not older than three years.

The acceptable minimum scores are as follows:

• TOEFL - 100 points (internet-based), 250 points (computer-based), 600 points (paper-based);
• IELTS - 7.0;
• CPE - "C".

We accept the following test scores:

TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language):

• 100-point range for internet-based tests,
• 250-point range for computer-based tests,
• 600-point range for paper-based tests;

IELTS (International English Language Testing System; academic version):

• score of 7.0 or above;

Cambridge CPE (Certificate of Proficiency in English):

• a minimum grade of "C”.

Scores from other Cambridge tests, such as the Key English Test and the Certificate of Advanced English, will not be accepted.

The test requirement is waived for applicants who are either native speakers or have received their degree from an institution at which English is the language of instruction. In the latter case, please add a written confirmation from your university if you have studied in a country other than the UK, Ireland, the USA, Canada, Australia, or New Zealand.

Yes, they are high, but this is necessary because our students must read – and understand! – many sophisticated legal and technical texts, all of which are in English. If you cannot fully understand them, you will not be able to complete your studies at the MIPLC successfully. Therefore, it is actually in the students’ best interest that we require excellent English skills.

The test requirement is waived for applicants who have received their degree from an institution at which English is the language of instruction. In the latter case, please add a written confirmation from your university if you have studied in a country other than the UK, Ireland, the USA, Canada, Australia, or New Zealand.

The test requirement is waived for applicants who are native speakers of English.

The test requirement is also waived for applicants who have received their degree from an institution at which English is the language of instruction. In the latter case, please add a written confirmation from your university if you have studied in a country other than the UK, Ireland, the USA, Canada, Australia, or New Zealand.

It is true that the MIPLC has higher test score requirements than the DAAD. For your application, the standards set by the MIPLC apply.

Yes, you can.

If your application is otherwise complete, it can be processed for preliminary admission. However, you will not be granted full admission status until we receive your test results.

NB: Applicants for the DAAD scholarship must submit their test results to MIPLC by October 15. We cannot make any exceptions.

In the meantime, if you can provide evidence of anything else that may prove the high level of your English, such as participation in a study program at an English-speaking university (even if you have not graduated from that university), please add it to your application.

Yes, we charge a fee of 50 EUR per application, payable in cash, by foreign draft, or by bank transfer. This fee is payable by all applicants, including applicants for the DAAD scholarship.

Please refer to the instructions on our website or in the FAQ for further details.

We charge an application fee of 50 EUR per applicant. To pay this fee, you have the following three options:

• Cash is generally the easiest option for us, as we will have instant proof of your payment and no fees to pay. There is of course a certain risk involved that the money might be stolen from your envelope, but thus far, this has not happened. We can only accept Euro banknotes;
• If you send a foreign draft/ check, it must be in EUR and drawn on a German bank, such as Deutsche Bank, Postbank, JP Morgan Frankfurt, etc. If you send us one of your regular personal domestic checks, in which you have possibly even struck out the printed currency symbol and replaced it manually with the € sign, we will not be able to clear it and will therefore reject it. Please talk to your bank before sending us anything. Your foreign draft must be made payable to the University of Augsburg. Foreign drafts made payable to the MIPLC will be rejected;
• Wire transfer services are available at many banks. If you use a wire transfer, please add proof of payment to your application, as it may take a few weeks for your payment to be credited to our account. Please note: you will have to bear the sending and receiving banks' charges, so that the full 50 EUR will be credited to our account.

We regret that we cannot accept any payments made through services such as XOOM that will not transmit your name and the reference to us!

The tuition for the entire program is 26,000 EUR per person. Other charges apply.

No. The tuition is the same for all nationalities.

The MIPLC has to be self-sustaining, i.e. cover all costs that arise in connection with its program. Such costs include, inter alia, honoraria and travel expenses for our international faculty, fees for access to legal databases, personnel costs for MIPLC administrative staff, etc.

No.

Yes. These fees include the following:

• Statutory enrolment fee at the University of Augsburg;
• Study materials;
• Various refundable deposit payments, e.g., for your office keys, copy machine card, etc.

These fees are payable by all students, including scholarship holders. For exact amounts, please refer to our Admissions Information.

Only if you want to (e.g., for reasons of taxation).

Otherwise, you can pay in three instalments: a deposit payment, due within four weeks after admission; a first instalment, due by August 1; and a second instalment, due by March 1 of the following year.

As we have only 30 spots on the program per year, we have to know who will attend the program. As soon as we have 30 confirmed participants, we must put all other admitted candidates on a waiting list. By admitting you to the program, we commit to accepting you as a student. In return, we expect you to commit to the MIPLC by making a deposit payment to show that you are serious about attending. If you drop out at the last minute, we will have to try and find a replacement student for you, but if we fail, we will lose income of up to 24,000 EUR, which will severely affect our financial planning.

Please note: The deposit payment will be deducted from your tuition dues. It is not an additional payment on top of the tuition.

If we did not require a deposit payment, we would have to ask all confirmed students for immediate payment of the entire tuition fee upon admission to the program.

Your admission letter will contain instructions on how to pay your deposit. After receipt of your deposit, we will send you an invoice for your first (and later your second) tuition instalment with payment instructions.

Generally speaking, your deposit and tuition should be paid by wire transfer.

We regret, but we cannot accept credit card payments.

The deposit payment is non-refundable. It serves as a guarantee that you will attend the program. Therefore, if you withdraw from the program before it starts, you forfeit this deposit. Please remember that in case of withdrawal, we suffer a much greater financial loss.

We regret but this is not possible. All deposit payments are non-refundable. 

However, a certain number of spots on the program are reserved for scholarship students.

No. Participants will have to pay for their own flights, accommodation, meals, etc.

A token participation fee of 100 EUR per participant will be charged.

Transportation, accommodation, and (certain) meals will be provided free of charge during the conferences.

However, you will have to pay for any additional food and beverages that you may consume outside of the meals provided.

The MIPLC financial assistance program is designed to, primarily, support highly-qualified students from developing countries who want to become IP experts and who have no other means of obtaining funding. If there are no such candidates, we will also consider applications from more developed countries.

Anyone may apply for financial assistance, and all applications will be reviewed and evaluated. However, we expect all applicants to do their best to secure funding from sources such as employers, banks, other scholarship organizations, etc. Tuition waivers will be offered to those students who show both need and merit.

Our formal requirements are simple: your complete application for admission and your complete application for financial assistance must arrive at the MIPLC by April 30. This means that you must, by April 30, have submitted all required application documents so we can process your application for admission.

Just submitting the online application form by April 30 is not sufficient.

We will only process your application for financial assistance if you are a fully admitted applicant.

No, we don't.

The MIPLC's financial assistance is available exclusively to students enrolled at the MIPLC.

Please complete our online application for admission. You will be asked whether you would like to apply for financial assistance. If you check the box, our Financial Assistance Application Form will automatically open. Please complete the form and add the requested documents. Please submit your application for financial assistance together with your application for admission to the MIPLC.

Yes, you do.

If you are going to apply for the DAAD scholarship "Postgraduate Courses for Professionals with Relevance to Developing Countries", please check the relevant box in our MIPLC online application form and complete the Financial Assistance Application Form that will open automatically.

Please do not forget to add supporting documentation to your application, as detailed in our Financial Assistance Application Instructions.

If you are applying for a partial tuition waiver, you are indicating that you have funds to pay at least part of the tuition fee out of your own pocket.

If you are applying for a full tuition waiver, you are asking us to let you study for free. Please note: Even with a full waiver, you would still have to pay the enrollment and other fees.

No. All students, including scholarship holders, will have to cover the following costs:

• enrollment fee (c. 175 EUR for the full year),
• reader bill (450 EUR),
• various office deposits (185 EUR, refundable),
• travel between your home country and Germany,
• rent and general living expenses,
• health insurance,
• public transportation,
• if applicable, EIPIN participation fee and expenses for Washington study trip.

All costs indicated above are subject to change. Additional costs may apply with personal habits and lifestyles.

If, for example, your salary is paid in a currency other than Euro, or you have assets or liabilities in any other currencies, please convert the amounts to Euros by using a common currency converter such as www.oanda.com.

Yes, you do. We will not "assume", based on your nationality or residence alone, that you will probably require financial assistance. Unless you file an application, you will not be considered for a scholarship.

All applications for financial assistance are reviewed after the general application deadline is over, i.e. from May on. They are usually decided upon in June. All applicants will be notified of the outcome in writing. In the meantime, please refrain from asking about updates.

No. Financial assistance is given on the basis of need and merit, not contacts.

Depends. When we informed you of your admission to the program, we asked you to make a deposit payment within four weeks to guarantee your participation. If these four weeks have passed and you have not made the payment, you have been moved to a waiting list.

If you would now like to join the program as a full-paying student, please contact us to see if a spot is still available.

Yes, they are.

No, there are not. We recommend that you focus on your studies so you can secure a well-paying job after graduation.

In general, we get about twice as many applications for financial assistance as we have places on the program. It is therefore quite obvious that not all applications will be granted.

Financial Assistance Applications that do not fulfil formal requirements, or that we consider ungrounded, will be rejected. Those applicants may attend the program as full-paying students if they wish and if places are still available.

Those applicants that would in general qualify for any type of tuition waiver but who are not selected in the initial round will be placed on a scholarship waiting list. They will move up that list if any of the people in front of them decline our offer. Of course, they, too, can join the program as full-paying students if they wish and if places are still available.

All admitted applicants will receive the same letter informing them of admission and asking for a tuition deposit of 2,000 EUR, regardless of whether they have applied for financial assistance or not.

Payment of the tuition deposit will guarantee your spot on our program.

Please note: The tuition deposit is non-refundable. Therefore, you should only make it if you will attend the MIPLC regardless of the outcome of your financial assistance application. If your application for financial assistance is turned down and you consequently cannot attend our program, you will lose your tuition deposit.

A certain number of places are reserved for students attending our program on financial assistance every year. You may therefore defer accepting admission until the tuition waiver scholarships have been allocated (this usually happens by early June). Still, we cannot guarantee that once our application deadline is over and once the tuition waiver scholarships have been allocated, there will be enough open spots to accommodate everyone. In this case, we will set up a waiting list.

To illustrate this point, we would like to draw your attention to the fact that for the academic year 2009/10, the MIPLC received a total of 98 applications for 30 places. Of these 98 applicants, 58 filed an application for financial assistance in the form of a tuition waiver. While most of the applicants were very well qualified for our program and – generally speaking – would have been eligible for a scholarship, it is quite simply not possible to grant a tuition waiver to each and every one of them.

No.

No.

In fact, the Declaration of Intent is only valid in conjunction with a deposit payment. Therefore, please return it to us only if you have secured funding and will ba making your deposit payment shortly.

Sending us your Declaration of Intent without paying the deposit will neither increase your chances of financial assistance, nor will it serve to keep your spot on our program.

We regret but this is not possible. All deposit payments are non-refundable. 

However, a certain number of spots on the program are reserved for scholarship students.

April 30.

Your complete application file including your application for admission, your application for financial assistance, and all required documents must reach us by April 30.

Please note: this is the deadline for MIPLC tuition waivers only. Different application deadlines apply for the DAAD scholarship.

No. We kindly ask you to refrain from stapling your application, and especially from stapling the entire set of documents together with a particulary strong staple. In order to process your application, we will have to remove the staple again.

You are welcome to use paper clips, however.

All applications are evaluated on the basis of the required documents only.

We ask you to please refrain from sending us additional materials. It will help your application much more if you focus on the required documents, but submit these in a complete and timely manner.

Among others, the following are NOT required: certificates of participation; certificates of merit; print-out of correspondence with MIPLC staff members; articles and research papers (published or unpublished); research project suggestions; contributions to blogs.

Yes, we charge a fee of 50 EUR per application, payable in cash, by foreign draft, or by bank transfer. This fee is payable by all applicants, including applicants for the DAAD scholarship.

Please refer to the instructions on our website or in the FAQ for further details.

No. We can only accept original applications. Please submit your application file by postal or courier service.

Please note: This applies to all applications, whether you are applying for admission, for financial assistance, and/ or for the DAAD scholarship.

The information below refers to certifications accepted by the MIPLC. If you are applying for the DAAD scholarship, please check with DAAD, as they may have other standards!

If you cannot provide original documents, e.g. because your university issues only one diploma and one set of transcripts, you will have to provide certified copies of the originals.

This means that your university, a notary, or any comparable institution places an official stamp and signature on the photocopy to certify that they are true copies of the original. This will show us that you have not manipulated the copies to, for instance, have them show better grades than you actually achieved.

As outlined in the DAAD brochure, "All papers must be submitted in identical duplicate."

Please put together your application with all originals respectively certified copies. Once you have assembled all required documents (your first set), make photocopies of each (your second set). Please submit both sets for your application.

Yes, you do.

If you are going to apply for the DAAD scholarship "Postgraduate Courses for Professionals with Relevance to Developing Countries", please check the relevant box in our MIPLC online application form and complete the Financial Assistance Application Form that will open automatically.

Please do not forget to add supporting documentation to your application, as detailed in our Financial Assistance Application Instructions.

Please submit your entire application for the DAAD scholarship "Postgraduate Courses for Professionals with Special Relevance to Developing Countries" in one package and to one addressee. This means that you should submit all application forms (for admission to the MIPLC, for MIPLC financial assistance, and for DAAD scholarship) together with all supporting documentation. If you send part of your application to, for example, the DAAD country office, and another part to the MIPLC directly, you will only create confusion.

We recommend that you send your entire application directly to the MIPLC.

Please note: This information applies only to the DAAD scholarship "Postgraduate Courses for Professionals with Special Relevance to Developing Countries". Procedures for other DAAD scholarships may vary. Please check with the DAAD.

To apply for the DAAD scholarship, please complete the MIPLC online application form and, at the end of the form, check the boxes for financial assistance and the DAAD scholarship. Our Financial Assistance Application Form will automatically open. Please complete this form as well, then print it and add the required documents.

In addition, you must complete the DAAD application form, which is also available for download on our website. Please also read the DAAD brochure, available for download on our website, very carefully and make sure you have all required documents ready. Please also note the special application deadlines:

• July 31 if submitting your application to the German Embassy in your home country or to the DAAD Country Office;
• August 31 if submitting your application to the DAAD Head Office in Bonn;
• October 15 if submitting your application to the MIPLC directly.

Special application deadlines apply for the DAAD scholarship "Postgraduate Courses for Professionals with Relevance for Developing Countries". If you are interested in this scholarship, you must apply at least one year in advance. The deadlines for receipt of your application file are as follows:

• July 31 if submitting your application to the German Embassy in your home country or to the DAAD Country Office;
• August 31 if submitting your application to the DAAD Head Office in Bonn;
• October 15 if submitting your application to the MIPLC directly.

We recommend sending your application directly to the MIPLC, unless you are from Cameroon, Myanmar or Nigeria, in which case you must submit your application to the German Embassy in your country.

If you are applying for any DAAD funding other than this program, other deadlines may apply. Please check with DAAD.

This deadline has been determined by the DAAD. Please enquire there.

Very strict.

Your complete application with all required documents must have reached the MIPLC by October 15. If any documents (this includes, for instance, your TOEFL/ IELTS score report) are still missing by October 15, you will not be considered for the DAAD scholarship.

If you have missed the deadline of July 30 (submission of your application at the German Embassy in your country, or at the DAAD Country Office), you can still submit your application to the MIPLC directly, or to the DAAD Head Office in Bonn. Since you will be sending your documents to Germany anyway, we recommend that you send them directly to the MIPLC.

The MIPLC will accept applications for the DAAD scholarship "Postgraduate Courses for Professionals with Relevance for Developing Countries" until October 15 of the preceding year.

If you have missed that deadline, your application can no longer be accepted for this scholarship. However, you can still submit your application for admission to the MIPLC and for financial assistance to us. We will accept all such applications that reach us by April 30.

This requirement has been set by the DAAD. Please enquire there.

Please refer to the DAAD brochure, where it is clearly stated that you are expected to submit

• "academic letter/s of recommendation from your university...", and
• "professional letter/s of recommendation..."

Yes, you can. However, we will not process your application before it is complete. You should make sure we receive the missing documents as quickly as possible, and before the application deadline.

Applications for the DAAD scholarship must be complete by October 15, including English test scores.

You should be informed about the result of your application at the beginning of the calendar year, i.e., January or February.

No, you cannot.

If you would like to apply for any DAAD funding other than the "Postgraduate Courses for Professionals with Relevance to Developing Countries", please submit your application directly to the DAAD. The MIPLC will not forward, consider, or process any DAAD applications other than those for the above-mentioned scholarship.

It is true that the MIPLC has higher test score requirements than the DAAD. For your application, the standards set by the MIPLC apply.

In order to be considered for the DAAD scholarship, you must have at least two years of professional experience. If you do not meet this criterion, your application for this scholarship will be rejected.

If you have more than one year. but less than two years of professional experience, you can apply for admission to the MIPLC, but you will not be considered for the DAAD scholarship.

No. Participants will have to pay for their own flights, accommodation, meals, etc.

No, it is not. Participation is fully optional.

The Washington study trip is a non-credit activity.

The program usually includes a visit to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, with case briefings and/ or discussions with the Judges; a visit to the US Patent and Trademark Office; and presentations from attorneys on a variety of IP issues. Moreover, one of the MIPLC courses will be taught, and transmitted to Munich via videoconference so those students who have stayed in Munich can also join.

Yes there is, but please remember that this is a study trip. If you want to go on vacation, we recommend you wait until after the completion of the LL.M. program. Most importantly, you are expected to be in class until right before the program and directly after its completion again.

No, it is not. Participation is voluntary.

All interested students can submit a letter of motivation by a deadline announced at the beginning of the LL.M. program. Based on this letter, the Program Directors will select the ten participants.

No, it isn’t. All participants are expected to attend all conferences and work on the joint research report.

A token participation fee of 100 EUR per participant will be charged.

Transportation, accommodation, and (certain) meals will be provided free of charge during the conferences.

However, you will have to pay for any additional food and beverages that you may consume outside of the meals provided.

We regret, but the EIPIN Congress is accessible only to participating students.

Please check our conference websites for information. Most MIPLC conferences are free, but require registration.

All MIPLC Lecture Series events are announced on our website in the News section; on our Facebook page; and via email. If you would like to be added to our email distribution list, please email us.

Participation in the Lecture Series is free.

We regret, but our Ph.D. program is open to our LL.M. graduates only. Suitable candidates will be identified by an internal selection process.

We regret, but we cannot provide any information about the IMPRS-CI. Please contact the IMPRS-CI directly.

We thank you for your interest, but regret to inform you that we cannot accommodate any visiting research scholars. Please contact the Max Planck Institute for Intellectual Property, Competition and Tax Law instead.

We regret, but we cannot accept external students to write their Master' thesis at the MIPLC.

You are kindly requested to refrain from contacting any MIPLC professor in this regard. They will only refer you back to MIPLC program and administrative staff, who will tell you that we cannot accept you.

It is, under certain circumstances, possible for external visitors to use the library of the Max Planck Institute for IP. Please refer to their website for further information.

We regret, but the EIPIN Congress is accessible only to participating students.

Students are generally expected to bring their own laptop computers to the MIPLC. For students who are not able to do so, a limited number of desktop computers is available.

Using your own laptop has the advantage that you may use your computer to type your exams, and/or install and use any software you want. Neither option is available when using an MIPLC desktop computer: Since the desktops cannot be taken to the classroom, you have to write your exams by hand, and you cannot install any other software than that provided by the MIPLC (basically MS Office and an e-mail program).

If you are unable to bring your own laptop, you can apply for one of our desktops. To do so, check "Yes" in the corresponding question of the application form. After your admission and payment of the tuition deposit you will be asked to send us as short e-mail confirming your request for a computer. A major (but not the only) allocation criterion is the order of time in which we receive your reply, i.e. a quick response is to your advantage. A few weeks before the program start, we will inform you whether or not you have been assigned one of our computers. If not, you are strongly encouraged to buy a laptop, as you will not be able to properly participate in the LL.M. program without a computer (apart from the essential e-mail account, you will, for example, be using online databases).

No. All students and visitors must find their own accommodation. There is no accommodation available at the MIPLC.

No, it doesn’t. All housing is available at standard market rates, and may actually be quite expensive. You might be able to find something cheaper on the market if you start looking yourself.

No, we don’t. This is a free service.

No. We have a small-scale housing program that allows us to allocate a small number of apartment or furnished rooms to our students each year. However, not all students are automatically part of the housing program.

No, you have to apply at GW Law directly. Please refer to http://law.gwu.edu/munichsummer.

Please contact The George Washington University Law School directly. The MIPLC cannot provide any information about this program, and cannot accept applications.

The GW Law website for this program is http://law.gwu.edu/munichsummer.

A certain number of courses are open to enrolment by MIPLC students. However, this is at the discretion of GW Law. All students will be informed of available courses in due time.

All applicants to our LL.M. program must have at least:

• A Bachelor's degree (or equivalent) in law, economics, business administration, natural sciences, engineering, IT, literature, or media sciences (240 ECTS credits);
• One year of relevant professional experience;
• Very good knowledge of the English language.

Please refer to the other FAQ for detailed explanations. Thank you.

Yes, we do.

On our website, please go to "LL.M. IP" and then to "Admissions". Here you will be able to access our online application system. Please complete the application form online. After you have sent the data to us, please print the form and sign it, then send it to us with the required documents attached.

When you print your completed online application form, the system will automatically provide a list of required documents. Please make sure you attach all required documents to your application, as incomplete files cannot be processed.

No. We kindly ask you to refrain from stapling your application, and especially from stapling the entire set of documents together with a particulary strong staple. In order to process your application, we will have to remove the staple again.

You are welcome to use paper clips, however.

All applications are evaluated on the basis of the required documents only.

We ask you to please refrain from sending us additional materials. It will help your application much more if you focus on the required documents, but submit these in a complete and timely manner.

Among others, the following are NOT required: certificates of participation; certificates of merit; print-out of correspondence with MIPLC staff members; articles and research papers (published or unpublished); research project suggestions; contributions to blogs.

Please don't.

About 90% of our applicants have completed the WIPO "General Course on Intellectual Property". This means that adding your certificate (especially in multiple languages!) does not give you an edge over your competitors. The same applies to any other course or seminar you may have attended. It does, however, add unnecessary bulk to your application file. We have limited space for storing applications and will therefore have to remove and destroy any additional but unsolicited documents you submit.

It is much more important for the success of your application that you submit all the required documents.

We require copies of your university diplomas and transcripts, but not of other training you have undertaken.

You are welcome to list any training courses you have taken in your CV, but please refrain from sending us certificates of participation.

Thank you for your understanding.

Yes, we charge a fee of 50 EUR per application, payable in cash, by foreign draft, or by bank transfer. This fee is payable by all applicants, including applicants for the DAAD scholarship.

Please refer to the instructions on our website or in the FAQ for further details.

We charge an application fee of 50 EUR per applicant. To pay this fee, you have the following three options:

• Cash is generally the easiest option for us, as we will have instant proof of your payment and no fees to pay. There is of course a certain risk involved that the money might be stolen from your envelope, but thus far, this has not happened. We can only accept Euro banknotes;
• If you send a foreign draft/ check, it must be in EUR and drawn on a German bank, such as Deutsche Bank, Postbank, JP Morgan Frankfurt, etc. If you send us one of your regular personal domestic checks, in which you have possibly even struck out the printed currency symbol and replaced it manually with the € sign, we will not be able to clear it and will therefore reject it. Please talk to your bank before sending us anything. Your foreign draft must be made payable to the University of Augsburg. Foreign drafts made payable to the MIPLC will be rejected;
• Wire transfer services are available at many banks. If you use a wire transfer, please add proof of payment to your application, as it may take a few weeks for your payment to be credited to our account. Please note: you will have to bear the sending and receiving banks' charges, so that the full 50 EUR will be credited to our account.

We regret that we cannot accept any payments made through services such as XOOM that will not transmit your name and the reference to us!

If paying by cheque, it is not necessary to indicate a reference.

Please note that your cheque must be made out to Universitaet Augsburg, and that it must be drawn on a German bank.

To make payments by bank transfer, please use the following account information:

Recipient's name: Staatsoberkasse Bayern
Bank Name: Bayerische Landesbank
Reference: UniAug 8067 MIPLC application fee [YOUR NAME]

a) Account Information for International Transfers:

SWIFT Code: BYLADEMM
Bank Name: IBAN: DE 74 7005 0000 0001 2792 82

b) Account Information for Domestic Transfers (from within Germany):

Account No. (Konto): 12 79 282
Bank Code (BLZ): 700 500 00

When paying your application fee by bank transfer, please make sure that you indicate the following reference:

UniAug 8067 MIPLC application fee [YOUR NAME]

Please use exactly this reference so the bank can allocate your payment. If you modify the reference or leave out anything, our bank might reject your payment, which will probably result in fee payments for you.

Please include a copy of your bank transfer confirmation with your application file.

We regret, but we are unable to accept credit card payments.

As far as we know, Western Union and similar services operate on the principle of personal pick-up. This means that you must indicate a natural person as the recipient of your payment, and this natural person must collect your payment from a pick-up point.

We regret that we have no resources at all to personally collect your payments and therefore cannot accept Western Union payments.  

If, by contrast, you can get Western Union or a similar service provider to deposit your payment directly into our bank account, you are very welcome to use their services.

We regret very much, but we cannot accept payments via Xoom and comparable services.

The reason for this is that Xoom will not transmit our reference with payments. However, without this reference it will not be possible to allocate your payment.

We ask for your understanding and apologize for the inconvenience.

Please go to our Admissions page and read the information provided there carefully. Then go to our electronic application form and complete it online. If you would like to apply for financial assistance and/ or the DAAD scholarship, check the relevant boxes at the end of the form and also complete the Financial Assistance Application Form that opens automatically.

Once you have completed the form(s), click on the "Send" button. Your data will be transmitted to the MIPLC. The system will automatically generate a PDF file of your application form(s), which you must print, sign, and send to the MIPLC along with supporting documentation as detailed in the instructions.

Please note: We can only process complete and original applications. If you simply send your application forms electronically without following up with the originals; or if you send us only your signed application form(s) without any of the required documentation, we cannot process your application. This means that you will not be admitted to the MIPLC, will not be considered for financial assistance, and/ or will not be considered for the DAAD scholarship.

We do not return any application documents.

If your application is unsuccessful, or if you are admitted but decide to not join our program, your documents will be destroyed.

Please add an official letter/ statement from your university confirming that no ranking takes place. This letter must be in English or German or, if it is in any other language, accompanied by a certified translation.

The information below refers to certifications accepted by the MIPLC. If you are applying for the DAAD scholarship, please check with DAAD, as they may have other standards!

If you cannot provide original documents, e.g. because your university issues only one diploma and one set of transcripts, you will have to provide certified copies of the originals.

This means that your university, a notary, or any comparable institution places an official stamp and signature on the photocopy to certify that they are true copies of the original. This will show us that you have not manipulated the copies to, for instance, have them show better grades than you actually achieved.

If you provide documents that were issued in a language other than German or English, they must be accompanied by a certified translation. This means that you must take them to an official translator authorized to translate from the document's language to English or German. The official translator will translate your documents and place his/ her official stamp on the translation to certify that this is a correct translation of the original.

Your documents can be translated into either English or German.

"Home-made" translations will not be accepted.

No, the MIPLC does not have a specific format for the letters of recommendation. Content is more important than form: The letters should help gain us a better impression of you.

However, please make sure your letters are printed on office/ university stationery, signed, and of recent date.

We leave this decision to you.

It is obviously in your interest to provide letters that convey significant information, so you may wish to consider your current situation and decide on that basis. If you have worked for the past five years, it makes more sense to provide a letter from a supervisor than from a former professor. If you have recently completed a study program, it is usually a good idea to provide a professor's reference. It is perfectly acceptable to provide one professional and one academic reference, too. 

Please note: if you are applying for the DAAD scholarship, you are required to submit one professional and one academic reference. Please refer to the DAAD scholarship program brochure for more information.

Our LL.M. program "Intellectual Property and Competition Law" is taught in English.

No, you don’t. The program is taught completely in English. All professors and administrative staff speak English. On the other hand, you will not get extra points in the evaluation of your application for your language skills.

Your admission letter will contain instructions on how to pay your deposit. After receipt of your deposit, we will send you an invoice for your first (and later your second) tuition instalment with payment instructions.

Generally speaking, your deposit and tuition should be paid by wire transfer.

We regret, but we cannot accept credit card payments.

The MIPLC financial assistance program is designed to, primarily, support highly-qualified students from developing countries who want to become IP experts and who have no other means of obtaining funding. If there are no such candidates, we will also consider applications from more developed countries.

Anyone may apply for financial assistance, and all applications will be reviewed and evaluated. However, we expect all applicants to do their best to secure funding from sources such as employers, banks, other scholarship organizations, etc. Tuition waivers will be offered to those students who show both need and merit.

Our formal requirements are simple: your complete application for admission and your complete application for financial assistance must arrive at the MIPLC by April 30. This means that you must, by April 30, have submitted all required application documents so we can process your application for admission.

Just submitting the online application form by April 30 is not sufficient.

We will only process your application for financial assistance if you are a fully admitted applicant.

Yes, you do.

If you are going to apply for the DAAD scholarship "Postgraduate Courses for Professionals with Relevance to Developing Countries", please check the relevant box in our MIPLC online application form and complete the Financial Assistance Application Form that will open automatically.

Please do not forget to add supporting documentation to your application, as detailed in our Financial Assistance Application Instructions.

If you are applying for a partial tuition waiver, you are indicating that you have funds to pay at least part of the tuition fee out of your own pocket.

If you are applying for a full tuition waiver, you are asking us to let you study for free. Please note: Even with a full waiver, you would still have to pay the enrollment and other fees.

If, for example, your salary is paid in a currency other than Euro, or you have assets or liabilities in any other currencies, please convert the amounts to Euros by using a common currency converter such as www.oanda.com.

All admitted applicants will receive the same letter informing them of admission and asking for a tuition deposit of 2,000 EUR, regardless of whether they have applied for financial assistance or not.

Payment of the tuition deposit will guarantee your spot on our program.

Please note: The tuition deposit is non-refundable. Therefore, you should only make it if you will attend the MIPLC regardless of the outcome of your financial assistance application. If your application for financial assistance is turned down and you consequently cannot attend our program, you will lose your tuition deposit.

A certain number of places are reserved for students attending our program on financial assistance every year. You may therefore defer accepting admission until the tuition waiver scholarships have been allocated (this usually happens by early June). Still, we cannot guarantee that once our application deadline is over and once the tuition waiver scholarships have been allocated, there will be enough open spots to accommodate everyone. In this case, we will set up a waiting list.

To illustrate this point, we would like to draw your attention to the fact that for the academic year 2009/10, the MIPLC received a total of 98 applications for 30 places. Of these 98 applicants, 58 filed an application for financial assistance in the form of a tuition waiver. While most of the applicants were very well qualified for our program and – generally speaking – would have been eligible for a scholarship, it is quite simply not possible to grant a tuition waiver to each and every one of them.

No.

No.

In fact, the Declaration of Intent is only valid in conjunction with a deposit payment. Therefore, please return it to us only if you have secured funding and will ba making your deposit payment shortly.

Sending us your Declaration of Intent without paying the deposit will neither increase your chances of financial assistance, nor will it serve to keep your spot on our program.

No. We have a small-scale housing program that allows us to allocate a small number of apartment or furnished rooms to our students each year. However, not all students are automatically part of the housing program.

To start your studies at the MIPLC, you must have gained at least 240 ECTS credits (generally equivalent to a four-year Bachelor’s degree). At the MIPLC, you will gain 60 ECTS credits, amounting to a total of 300 ECTS credits, which is the minimum required for the Master’s level.

If you have fewer than 240 ECTS credits, e.g. because you only have a three-year Bachelor degree, we can recognize additional credits you have gained from professional experience. You can earn a maximum of 60 ECTS credits that way. However, you must then have at least two years of professional experience: one year for the extra credits, and another year to satisfy the professional-experience requirement.

Please contact us for more details.

Our general application deadline is April 30. This means that we must receive your complete application file by April 30. We accept applications from November on for the coming academic year, which will start the following October.

Please note that different application deadlines apply for the DAAD scholarship.

We are aware that our application deadline is early and that other programs accept applications until just a few weeks before the start of the academic year. However, these programs ofter have mostly German/ European students. The MIPLC, by contrast, has a large number of non-European students who must apply for visas in order to study in Germany. If they only got admitted in September, they would invariably miss the first few weeks of the program.

This will depend on whether we have any open slots left on our program. Please contact us by email or phone before sending your file.

Please note: Applications for financial assistance received after April 30 will not be taken into consideration.

No, you don't. We process complete applications from December on and will admit qualified candidates on a rolling basis.

Yes, of course.

We will gladly issue confirmation documents for you, e.g. of previous contact between you and us, if they are needed for a scholarship application to an outside organization.

In exceptional circumstances, we will also process applications for admission before December of the year preceding the targeted academic year. Please contact us well in advance.

Please submit your entire application for the DAAD scholarship "Postgraduate Courses for Professionals with Special Relevance to Developing Countries" in one package and to one addressee. This means that you should submit all application forms (for admission to the MIPLC, for MIPLC financial assistance, and for DAAD scholarship) together with all supporting documentation. If you send part of your application to, for example, the DAAD country office, and another part to the MIPLC directly, you will only create confusion.

We recommend that you send your entire application directly to the MIPLC.

Please note: This information applies only to the DAAD scholarship "Postgraduate Courses for Professionals with Special Relevance to Developing Countries". Procedures for other DAAD scholarships may vary. Please check with the DAAD.

To apply for the DAAD scholarship, please complete the MIPLC online application form and, at the end of the form, check the boxes for financial assistance and the DAAD scholarship. Our Financial Assistance Application Form will automatically open. Please complete this form as well, then print it and add the required documents.

In addition, you must complete the DAAD application form, which is also available for download on our website. Please also read the DAAD brochure, available for download on our website, very carefully and make sure you have all required documents ready. Please also note the special application deadlines:

• July 31 if submitting your application to the German Embassy in your home country or to the DAAD Country Office;
• August 31 if submitting your application to the DAAD Head Office in Bonn;
• October 15 if submitting your application to the MIPLC directly.

This deadline has been determined by the DAAD. Please enquire there.

Very strict.

Your complete application with all required documents must have reached the MIPLC by October 15. If any documents (this includes, for instance, your TOEFL/ IELTS score report) are still missing by October 15, you will not be considered for the DAAD scholarship.

If you have missed the deadline of July 30 (submission of your application at the German Embassy in your country, or at the DAAD Country Office), you can still submit your application to the MIPLC directly, or to the DAAD Head Office in Bonn. Since you will be sending your documents to Germany anyway, we recommend that you send them directly to the MIPLC.

The MIPLC will accept applications for the DAAD scholarship "Postgraduate Courses for Professionals with Relevance for Developing Countries" until October 15 of the preceding year.

If you have missed that deadline, your application can no longer be accepted for this scholarship. However, you can still submit your application for admission to the MIPLC and for financial assistance to us. We will accept all such applications that reach us by April 30.

Our LL.M. program is a “program of further study” (“weiterbildender Studiengang” in German). Under German law, such programs, which are clearly designed for professionals, are open only to applicants with at least one year of professional experience. It is thus a legal requirement.

If you have fewer than 240 ECTS credits, e.g. because you only have a three-year Bachelor degree, we can recognize additional credits you have gained from professional experience. You can earn a maximum of 60 ECTS credits that way. However, you must then have at least two years of professional experience: one year for the extra credits, and another year to satisfy the professional-experience requirement.

This requirement has been set by the DAAD. Please enquire there.

Please refer to the DAAD brochure, where it is clearly stated that you are expected to submit

• "academic letter/s of recommendation from your university...", and
• "professional letter/s of recommendation..."

"Relevant" means that your experience should either be related to intellectual property, or to the subject of the qualifying degree. This means, for example, experience as an engineer if your qualifying degree is in engineering, experience in law if your qualifying degree is in law, and so on.

Apart from actual employment in a paid position, we can also accept as professional experience any of the following:

• internships,
• work as a research assistant, and
• the German "Referendariat".

Yes, you can. However, we will not process your application before it is complete. You should make sure we receive the missing documents as quickly as possible, and before the application deadline.

Applications for the DAAD scholarship must be complete by October 15, including English test scores.

You should be informed about the result of your application at the beginning of the calendar year, i.e., January or February.

No, you cannot.

If you would like to apply for any DAAD funding other than the "Postgraduate Courses for Professionals with Relevance to Developing Countries", please submit your application directly to the DAAD. The MIPLC will not forward, consider, or process any DAAD applications other than those for the above-mentioned scholarship.

If you are admitted to the program, we will send you a letter with further information. This letter will include an acceptance form and payment instructions for a deposit payment that we require to guarantee your participation. You have four weeks from the date of our letter to make your deposit payment.

If we do not receive your deposit payment within four weeks (e.g., because you have applied for a tuition waiver scholarship and want to await the scholarship decisions), we will automatically move you to waiting-list status. This means that you keep your admission status, but your participation is not necessarily guaranteed.

Admission is valid only for the academic year for which it is granted. If you want to defer your application to the following academic year, please contact us. Your application will have to be reactivated, and will be evaluated again for admission.

Despite your admission status at another university, you will still have to apply for admission to the MIPLC. This is also true if you have been admitted at one of the MIPLC’s partner institutions, e.g. the George Washington University Law School.

As our program is taught exclusively in English, all students must have a very high level of active and passive knowledge of English. We therefore require all applicants to submit score report sheets for a TOEFL, IELTS, or Cambridge CPE not older than three years.

The acceptable minimum scores are as follows:

• TOEFL - 100 points (internet-based), 250 points (computer-based), 600 points (paper-based);
• IELTS - 7.0;
• CPE - "C".

We accept the following test scores:

TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language):

• 100-point range for internet-based tests,
• 250-point range for computer-based tests,
• 600-point range for paper-based tests;

IELTS (International English Language Testing System; academic version):

• score of 7.0 or above;

Cambridge CPE (Certificate of Proficiency in English):

• a minimum grade of "C”.

Scores from other Cambridge tests, such as the Key English Test and the Certificate of Advanced English, will not be accepted.

The test requirement is waived for applicants who are either native speakers or have received their degree from an institution at which English is the language of instruction. In the latter case, please add a written confirmation from your university if you have studied in a country other than the UK, Ireland, the USA, Canada, Australia, or New Zealand.

Yes, they are high, but this is necessary because our students must read – and understand! – many sophisticated legal and technical texts, all of which are in English. If you cannot fully understand them, you will not be able to complete your studies at the MIPLC successfully. Therefore, it is actually in the students’ best interest that we require excellent English skills.

The test requirement is waived for applicants who have received their degree from an institution at which English is the language of instruction. In the latter case, please add a written confirmation from your university if you have studied in a country other than the UK, Ireland, the USA, Canada, Australia, or New Zealand.

The test requirement is waived for applicants who are native speakers of English.

The test requirement is also waived for applicants who have received their degree from an institution at which English is the language of instruction. In the latter case, please add a written confirmation from your university if you have studied in a country other than the UK, Ireland, the USA, Canada, Australia, or New Zealand.

It is true that the MIPLC has higher test score requirements than the DAAD. For your application, the standards set by the MIPLC apply.

In order to be considered for the DAAD scholarship, you must have at least two years of professional experience. If you do not meet this criterion, your application for this scholarship will be rejected.

If you have more than one year. but less than two years of professional experience, you can apply for admission to the MIPLC, but you will not be considered for the DAAD scholarship.

Yes, you can.

If your application is otherwise complete, it can be processed for preliminary admission. However, you will not be granted full admission status until we receive your test results.

NB: Applicants for the DAAD scholarship must submit their test results to MIPLC by October 15. We cannot make any exceptions.

In the meantime, if you can provide evidence of anything else that may prove the high level of your English, such as participation in a study program at an English-speaking university (even if you have not graduated from that university), please add it to your application.

The exact timeframe depends on the workload the members of the Admissions Committee have to cope with. We generally try to complete the evaluations within two to three weeks of receiving a complete application.

Upon receipt, your application is reviewed to ensure that it is complete. We will send you an email confirmation of receipt and, if applicable, request you to hand in any missing documents. We will only consider complete applications for admission. You will be notified about the evaluation result by both e-mail and mail.

Since the number of places is limited to 30, admission runs on a competitive basis. This means that applicants are selected strictly on criteria focused on academic and personal achievements. Because complete applications are reviewed in incoming order, it is to your advantage to submit all requested documents as early as possible.

If you need an early response to your application, e.g. because you are simultaneously applying for a scholarship and must meet a deadline or include a statement from the MIPLC in your scholarship application, please inform us accordingly. We will be happy to support you in any way possible.

If you have been admitted to the MIPLC, you will receive a letter informing you accordingly. Any admission is only valid for the academic year for which you have applied. That is, if you are accepted into the program but cannot attend, you will have to apply again for any of the following academic years.

As a certain number of admitted applicants will decide not to study at the MIPLC for various reasons, we will admit more than the thirty students for whom we have places. This means that admission does not yet guarantee participation. In order to secure your spot on our program, we ask that you complete, sign, and return to us the Acceptance Form that is enclosed with your admissions letter, and that you transfer a non-refundable tuition deposit of 2,000 EUR to our account within four weeks.

The Acceptance Form is valid only in conjunction with your deposit payment. Therefore, please return the form to us only if you are sure you will definitely be attending our program, either because you have sufficient funding or because you have received a tuition waiver from us. If you have filed a scholarship application, returning the form to us will not increase your chances of financial assistance.

All admitted applicants will receive the same letter and payment instructions, regardless of whether they have applied for financial assistance or not.

We understand that some of our applicants require financial assistance and are unable to make the deposit payment within the specified period. Applicants may of course defer accepting admission until the tuition waiver scholarships have been allocated (this usually happens by early June). However, please understand that your spot may be given to another (paying) student after your deadline for the deposit payment has passed. You will keep your admission status but may lose your spot.

A certain number of places are reserved for students attending our program on financial assistance every year. Still, we cannot guarantee that once our application deadline is over and once the tuition waiver scholarships have been allocated, there will be enough open spots to accommodate everyone. In this case, we will set up a waiting list.

To illustrate this point, we would like to draw your attention to the fact that for the academic year 2009/10, the MIPLC received a total of 97 applications for 30 places. Of these 97 applicants, 58 filed an application for financial assistance in the form of a tuition waiver. While most of the applicants were very well qualified for our program and – generally speaking – would have been eligible for a scholarship, it is quite simply not possible to grant a tuition waiver to each and every one of them.

Therefore, if we do not grant your application for a tuition waiver, it means simply that we found a better combination of need and merit in someone else. If your application for a scholarship has been turned down, we ask you to please kindly refrain from contacting us to ask for an explanation. We understand your disappointment, but we will not make any statements about why your application was unsuccessful, what was special about the successful applications, and how you could have had better chances of success.

We thank you for your understanding and wish you the best of success.

MyMIPLC is a customized view to content that is related to your role. To access MyMIPLC, you must have a username and password, which you will receive if you are an MIPLC student, faculty member, or tutor.