Prof. Dr. Oliver Schäfer

Oliver Schäfer specialises in copyright law as well as entertainment, online and IT business and data protection law and advises in all the legal matters of these fields.

As of September 2016, Oliver Schäfer has been appointed to a full professorship for civil law, intellectual property right and IT law at Offenburg University. He has since taken the position of an external counsel to RA Andreas Maier and RA Philipp Brüggemann. Due to his position as a University Professor, he laid down his bar admission in September 2019. From May 2021 until February 2024, he has acted as Prorector for Academic Affairs and part of the rectorate of Offenburg University.

Amongst his clients are German and international media companies, software publishers, music labels, producers, publishing houses and galleries, as well as artists, actors, artist managements, agencies and online merchants, and agencies.

He has been counseling numerous online services and online communities of all sizes and from the very start of an enterprise to the licensing of content (with special expertise in the online exploitation of series and movies) and matters of consumer protection, data protection, and protection of minors.

Following law studies at the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg and Humboldt-Universität in Berlin with a focus on copyright and industrial property rights, he obtained his doctorate at Humboldt Universität in Berlin with Prof. Kirchner on a copyright subject. From 2003 to 2005, he held a position in the legal department of Universal Music GmbH. Having joined a Hamburg based media law boutique in 2006 as a lawyer where he became a partner in 2008 and opened and directed their Berlin office in 2011.

As of November 2015, he founded the law firm SCHÄFER MAIER Rechtsanwälte together with Andreas Maier.

Oliver Schäfer has been awarded the title of “Fachanwalt für IT-Recht” (specialist solicitor for IT law).

He is a member of the German Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property (GRUR).

Native language: German. Fluent English and French. Basic Spanish.

Publications:

• Angemessene Vergütung im Bereich Fotografie (eng: Appropriate compensation in the field of photography)
  in: Angemessene Vergütung von Urhebern und Künstlern: Lizenzierungspraxis, Vergütungsregeln, Schadensersatz, herausgegeben von Dr. Frank Brauner und Dr. Anja Brauneck, C.H.Beck, 2022 (S. 427-502)
• Neue Nutzungsarten als Herausforderung im Lizenzgeschäft (eng: New types of use as a challenge in the licensing business)
  in: Handbuch der Musikwirtschaft, herausgegeben von Dr. Rolf Moser, Dr. Andreas Scheuermann, und Dr. Florian Drücke, C.H. Beck, 7. Auflage 2018 (S. 619-638)

• “Keep the Artist happy” – Was das Urhebervertragsrecht für einen fairen Ausgleich zwischen Musikern und Verwertern leisten kann und woran es in der Praxis noch scheitert (eng: “Keep the Artist happy” – What copyright contract law can contribute to a fair balance between musicians and their partners and what it still fails to do in practice)
  in: Festschrift zu Ehren von Christian Kirchner, S. 229-252, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2014
• Das Recht auf private Vervielfältigung von Tonträgern – Modell einer rechtlichen Lösung und ihrer technischen Umsetzung (eng: The right to private copy of sound carriers – a model for a legal solution and its technical implementation)
  Verlag Peter Lang, Frankfurt 2005
• Music-On-Demand – A new type of use in the Internet
  in: International Review of Industrial Property and Copyright Law (IIC), (3/2001, S. 285)
• Music-On-Demand – Neue Nutzungsart im Internet
  in: GRUR Int. (3/2000, S. 187, gemeinsam mit Prof. Dr. Artur-Axel Wandtke)