Sylvie Strobel, LL.B. (Montreal), Member of the Quebec Bar, former Fellow of the Max-Planck-Institute for Foreign and International Patent, Copyright and Competition Law, has been a lawyer in the International Legal Affairs, PCT Directorate of the European Patent Office in Munich since 1997. She deals inter alia with substantive patent law harmonization, TRIPs and substantive and procedural issues under the European Patent Convention.