Pierre is French/German citizen. He studied law at the Universities of Strasbourg (D.E.S.S. at CEIPI - Centre d’Etudes Internationales de la Propriété Intellectuelle), Heidelberg and Munich. Pierre worked as a research assistant at the Max-Planck-Institute for Intellectual Property (Munich) where he obtained his PhD on the sanctions of patent infringement with special emphasis on French and German law. After working in private practice, Pierre joined the European Patent Office in 2001 where he worked in Directorate Patent Law focussing on Biotech-inventions and acting as a legally qualified member in grant and opposition proceedings. He works in Directorate International Legal Affairs since 2009 where he is inter alia responsible for the Unitary Patent and its implementation at the EPO.