Annette Kur has dominated like few others the academic approach not only to trade mark law but also to design law and related matters of protection of intellectual property rights, branching broadly into private international law and international procedural law, both as a prolific author and as teacher, far beyond her German origin. The comparative law approach, which was and is the hallmark of the Munich Max Planck Institute for Intellectual Property and Competition Law, now named Institute for Innovation and Competition – her intellectual “Heimat”, has always moderated the search for the best answer. When recognizing a variety of possible solutions, we should be modest in propagating our own solutions. As an example for this I should like to refer to the famous Study on the Overall Functioning of the European Trade Mark System commissioned by the European Commission and published by the Max Planck Institute in 2013 – Annette Kur was one of the principal authors of this Study, which is an example of her skill in blending profound academic analysis and expertise with wisdom in proposing legislative solutions. My contribution to this Festschrift is meant as a small tribute to what Annette Kur represents today at the summit of intellectual property law.