Dr. Philipp Müller

 

Dr. Philipp Müller qualified as a German Patent Attorney in 2019, as a European Trade Mark and Design Attorney in 2020 and as a European Patent Attorney in 2021. He has wide-ranging technical expertise in the field of micro-optics and in the mass production of microsystems by means of clean room processes, in particular wafer-level-manufacturing.

 

Before working for Maucher Jenkins, Philipp Müller worked as an R&D engineer and project manager for a supplier to leading international OEMs in the field of optical sensor technology and 3D cameras for mobile devices such as smartphones. In close collaboration with clients worldwide, he worked on the development of new products and their implementation in mass production at sites in Zurich and Singapore.

 

During his time at university, Philipp Müller completed his doctorate with a distinction in 2012 on optofluidic technology at the Laboratory for Micro-optics at the Department for Microsystems Technology (IMTEK) of University Freiburg and also led a research group working on tunable elastomer optics and novel actuator technologies.

 

With his academic background, he is keen to exploring new technologies with clients and also regularly consults University startups but also established companies entering new technological fields or willing to cooperate with a startup.

 

The development of tailor-made strategies for patent filing is therefore a key component of his consultancy work, including finding ways of intelligently circumventing existing patents of competitors and securing the own technical workarounds by patent applications for his clients.

 

Dr. Müller is also acting as an advocate in opposition proceedings before the European Patent Office (EPO) and the German Patent & Trademark Office (GPTO) and has supported clients facing the threat of a possible patent infringement.

 

Philipp Müller has been ranked by Managing Intellectual Property as a Rising Star for 2023 and 2024. 

 

   

 

 

Publications:

 

Book chapter:

'Optofluidic micro-shutters and micro-irises'; Tunable Micro-optics. Tracing Nature's Vision, Müller, Philipp, Cambridge University Press 2016, edited by Claudia Dupp´e and Hans Zappe.

 

Articles in specialist magazines:

'Variable optofluidic slit aperture'. Light: Science and Applications,  article in press since 23 August, 2015, Schuhladen, Stefan, Kaustubh Banerjee, Moritz Stürmer, Philipp Müller, Ulrike Wallrabe, and Hans Zappe.

 

'Smart artificial muscle actuators: Liquid Crystal Elastomers with integrated temperature feedback'. Sensors and Actuators A:  231:44–51, 2015, Physical, Petsch, Sebastian, Richard Rix, Bilal Khatri, Stefan Schuhladen, Philipp Müller, Rudolf Zentel, and Hans Zappe.

 

'Optofluidic router based on tunable liquid-liquid mirrors'. Lab Chip, 14(4):737 - 743, 2014, Müller, Philipp, Daniel Kopp, Andreu Llobera, and Hans Zappe.

 

 'Integrated optofluidic iris'. Journal of Microelectro-mechanical Systems, 21(5):1156–1164, 2012, Müller, Philipp, Roland Feuerstein, and Hans Zappe.

 

'A fully integrated optofluidic attenuator'. Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering, 21(12):125027–125040, 2011. Müller, Philipp, Anton Kloss, Peter Liebetraut, Wolfgang Mönch, and Hans Zappe.

 

'On-the-fly writing of a long grating phase mask'. Optical Engineering, 50(3):038001 (9pp), 2011. Müller, Philipp, Yves Jourlin, Colette Veillas, Gérard Bernaud, Yannick Bourgin, and Svetlen Tonchev. 

 

'An optofluidic concept for a tunable micro-iris'. Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems, 19(6):1477–1484, 2010.
Müller, Philipp, Nils Spengler, Hans Zappe, and Wolfgang Mönch.

 

Interests outside work:

 

Philipp enjoys time on his racing and mountain bikes, as well as running or Telemark skiing in the Black Forest.