Pascal T. Sierek bestowed GRUR Dissertation Award

The German Association for Intellectual Property Law (GRUR) has honoured Pascal T. Sierek, research fellow at the Institute, for his dissertation “Datenaustausch durch Datentreuhand” [Data Sharing through Data Trustees] in the prize category of data and information law.

Established in 1891, GRUR is the largest and oldest association in Germany devoted to the protection of intellectual property. As set out in its statutes, the purpose of the Association is the “academic advancement and development of industrial property and copyright law at the German, European and international level”. The annual GRUR Dissertation Awards cover the categories of patent and utility model law, copyright and media law, trademark, competition, and design law, and data and information law. The awards recognize exceptional academic work that has, in the respective category, adopted innovative approaches to research or examined new issues, thereby demonstrably advancing their particular field within intellectual property law. In his dissertation, Sierek examines the question of how data trustees can be set up under private law in order to promote a sovereign exchange of data between market participants.

Dr. Pascal T. Sierek studied law at Bucerius Law School and at Stellenbosch University in South Africa. In 2024 he earned his doctoral degree at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn. He has been a research fellow at the Institute since February 2025. His dissertation was previously awarded the 2025 TELEKOM Prize from the Department of Law at the University of Bonn.