Nikolaus Thumm is the Chief Economist of the European Patent Office. He is also Executive Secretary of the EPO Economic and Scientific Advisory Board. Prior to joining the EPO Mr. Thumm was working as Senior Economic Counselor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property. He was chairman of the United Nations' Advisory Group on the Protection and Implementation of Intellectual Property Rights for Investment, a private-public partnership group. Mr. Thumm was working for 5 years with the European Commission in Spain; he spent time as researcher at the European University Institute in Florence and with Europa Kolleg Hamburg, where he received his doctorate in economics.