Michael Horak

Michael Horak is a partner in the Intellectual Property and Information Technology Team and Digital Law Team. He supports businesses and creative entrepreneurs in protecting and defending their trademarks, works and know-how in and out of court. He regularly represents clients in proceedings before the Austrian Patent Office and the EUIPO as well as civil and criminal courts, in particular in landmark proceedings before the Austrian Supreme Court.

He focuses on

• trademarks and domains
• unfair competition
• copyright
• designs
• patents and know-how

Michael is ranked by Chambers Global and Europe 2024 as well as WTR1000, IP Stars and JUVE as one of the leading lawyers in the field of unfair competition and intellectual property.

He began his career as an assistant at the Institute of Criminal Law at the University of Salzburg, worked as an associate and attorney for renowned commercial law firms in Vienna. Since 2019, Michael has been Counsel at Binder Grösswang. He studied at the Universities of Salzburg, La Rochelle (France) and Münster (Germany) (Dr. iur. 2001, Mag. iur. 1999) and completed postgraduate studies (LL.M.) at the London School of Economics. Horak completed all his studies with distinction. 

Michael lectures on "Industrial Property Protection" at the Management Center Innsbruck (MCI). 

He regularly publishes on current topics regarding intellectual property, trademark law as well as IT-law and is a sought-after speaker at specialist congresses and conferences.

He is a member of the International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property (AIPPI), the International League of Competition Law (LIDC), the copyright committee of the European Communities Trademark Association (ECTA), the German Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property (GRUR), the International Trademark Association (INTA) and the Austrian Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property (ÖV).