Book excerpt: Hanns Ullrich, this highly renowned legal scholar, has had a tremendous influence on legal research and the development of the law in the fields of both Technology and Competition. His expertise dates back to the late 1970s and early 1980s, when he served as a member of the research staff at the Max Planck Institute for Intellectual Property in Munich. In 1985, he became professor of law at the "Universität der Bundeswehr", Munich, and finally, in 2000, professor at the european University Institute, florence. He has acted as visiting professor at a number of Universities around the worldincluding, in particular, the College of Europe, Bruges. The authors of the contributions in this book feel greatly indebted to Hanns Ullrich. Much earlier than others, he recognised and explained that, in the absence of pressure from competition, intellectual property will not be able to fulfil its mission of enhancing innovation. In concentrating on the fields of interest of this eminent scholar, the contributions address a number of the most burning issues of the regulation of intellectual property, competition law and, of course, the application of competition law to IP-related cases.