When people first encounter the idea of strategy, they often think of long lists of actions, meticulous plans, or detailed timetables. But the lecture on IP Strategy Development at the CEIPI MIPLM begins with a different truth: strategy is not planning. Strategy is a story about winning. It is the unifying theme that gives coherence to all the small choices made inside a company, the thread that links an organization to its environment and carries it forward into the future. Without such a guiding story, firms may move busily but without direction, like travellers who walk quickly yet never arrive anywhere.

The lecture starts by pulling us back in time, reminding us that strategy has always been about survival and advantage. From Sun Tzu in ancient China to Clausewitz in the 19th century, the idea of planning battles and outmanoeuvring rivals has shaped the word itself. In the modern business world, the battlefield has become the marketplace. Companies, like armies, seek favourable positions, strong defences, and decisive moves. And just as generals must read the terrain, executives must read the industry landscape. This is where the market-based view of strategy enters the stage.

Michael Porter’s framework of the Five Forces is presented almost like a map of competitive pressure. Rivalry among existing competitors, the power of customers and suppliers, the threat of new entrants, and the possibility of substitutes—all these forces shape whether a company’s chosen position is safe or vulnerable. The lecture makes the point vivid: some industries are naturally more attractive than others, but even within the same industry, a company’s position can determine whether it thrives or merely survives. Intellectual property, often underestimated, is one of the most powerful tools for shaping this map. Patents can raise barriers to entry, trademarks can anchor loyalty and reduce substitution, and designs can distinguish products in ways that customers are willing to pay for.

Here is a video interview with Michael Porter about his famous “Five Forces”:

Yet no story of strategy can stop at the external landscape alone. If the market-based view is the map, then the resource-based view is the equipment a company carries into the field. Resources—tangible assets, technologies, know-how, culture, even reputation—are the building blocks of advantage. The lecture explains that not all resources are equal. To sustain advantage, they must be valuable, rare, inimitable, and non-substitutable: the famous VRIN conditions. Intellectual property is the shield that ensures a resource truly remains rare and inimitable. A brilliant design without design protection is an open invitation to copy; a core competence without patents may be quickly imitated. IP transforms fragile assets into defensible strategic weapons.

But the story does not end there. The world is not static. What is valuable today may be obsolete tomorrow. Competitors learn, technologies change, customer preferences shift. This is where the idea of dynamic capabilities enters the narrative. As David Teece and others have argued, winning firms are those that can reconfigure their resources faster than others, sense opportunities earlier, and adapt their structures more effectively. The lecture highlights that IP management itself must become dynamic. Portfolios must be pruned, filings aligned with evolving business models, and competitive intelligence constantly updated. Static protection is never enough; only a living, adaptable IP system can secure long-term survival.

The extent to which IP strategies depend on industries can be clearly seen in life sciences. IP Subject Matter Expert Christian Heubeck has created a dedicated page on this topic in the digital IP Lexicon 🧭dIPlex: “IP protection in the life sciences”. This topic is also covered in episode #60 of the podcast 🎧IP Management Voice: IP Protection in the Life Sciences Industry”.

To bring these abstract concepts to life, the lecture tells the story of Apple’s revival. In 1997, Apple was on the brink of collapse, posting a billion-dollar loss. Enter Steve Jobs, who chose not simply to design new products but to create a new ecosystem. The iMac and iBook were steps forward, but the real revolution came with iTunes and the iPod. Apple transformed product innovation into business model innovation, offering legal music downloads for 99 cents, negotiating with all five major record labels, and building massive network effects. IP was everywhere in this story: patents and design rights created fences around the hardware, trademarks built a powerful brand, and the “Made for iPod” program turned IP into licensing revenue. By weaving protection into the heart of the ecosystem, Apple converted fragility into dominance. This was strategy in action, not as a plan but as a story of design, negotiation, and IP-driven advantage.

Here’s the case study of the Apple iPod and the systematic use of IP to influence the “Five Forces”:

The story continues with another case: Vorwerk’s Thermomix. For years, its multifunctional food processor enjoyed a reputation for uniqueness. But as competitors began to imitate its visible features, the aura of exclusivity started to fade. Rather than cling to the past, the company redefined its IP strategy. It asked: which customer benefits truly close the sale? The answers were guided cooking, safety, and flexibility. With this knowledge, Vorwerk launched the TM5 with a 360° IP strategy. Patents were filed “from the benefit backwards,” designs captured the product’s form, trademarks and even a four-tone sound mark reinforced distinctiveness, and copyright protected recipe databases. Accessories carried logos to police knock-offs. The result was a surge in demand and revenue uplift, proof that when IP is aligned with customer value, it becomes not just a shield but a growth engine.

Here is a video summary of Vorwerk’s IP strategy for the Thermomix:

These case studies reveal the essence of the lecture’s message: IP is not a legal service to be managed in isolation. It is a management discipline, central to corporate strategy. This becomes even clearer in the distinction drawn between IP administration and IP management. Administration is about filings, fees, and enforcement—necessary but not sufficient. Management is about turning exclusivity into measurable financial outcomes: price premiums, market share gains, licensing income, or ecosystem control. One phrase captures it memorably: administration protects inventions, management converts protection into sustained competitive advantage.

Here is a video summary of the 360° IP strategy concept:

The lecture also walks through the structured process of developing an IP strategy. It is portrayed almost like a journey with three steps. First comes strategic analysis: mapping external threats and opportunities through tools like Five Forces and industry value chains, while also assessing internal strengths and weaknesses through business model and value chain analysis. The IP perspective at this stage is to identify levers that shift bargaining power or raise the strategic value of resources. Second comes the choice of strategy objectives: defining the sources of competitive advantage, whether through differentiation and premium pricing or cost leadership and market share gains. Here, IP must be aligned to market attractiveness and resource strength, ensuring protection is concentrated where it matters most. Third comes strategy formulation: designing the IP system that captures value. Functions are identified (what is protected), impacts clarified (what behaviors are influenced), appropriation chosen (how cash is captured), and economic effects targeted (premium or share). In this way, the story of IP strategy development is structured but flexible, rigorous yet adaptable to each company’s narrative.

Various IP rights and their economically effective use were discussed. This particularly included design law and its use in protecting visual innovation. IP Subject Matter Expert Malgorzate Zyla created a dedicated page on the digital IP Lexicon 🧭dIPlex: “Design Rights: Protecting Visual Innovation”. This topic is also covered in episode #59 of the podcast 🎧IP Management Voice: Protecting Visual Innovation with Design Rights.

In the digital transformation, trade secrets are becoming increasingly important commercially. And with them, disputes over trade secrets are also on the rise. IP Subject Matter Expert Axel Oldekop has created a dedicated page in the digital IP Lexicon 🧭dIPlex: “Litigation of Trade Secrets.”I3PM Case Study Siemens

The Siemens example shows how this logic plays out in practice. With divisions spanning software, infrastructure, mobility, and med-tech, a single approach would be impossible. Each business unit faces different innovation cycles, regulatory contexts, and market dynamics. Digital Industries must move quickly with software patents and trade secrets, Smart Infrastructure focuses on interoperability and standardization, Mobility emphasizes long-term rail patents and safety systems, while Healthineers relies on deep patent thickets and regulatory trust. Siemens demonstrates that value-oriented IP management means adapting tactics to business logics, but always with the same principle: IP must generate measurable benefit.

Here is a video summary of the Siemens IP strategy case study:

As the lecture closes, the overarching story comes into focus. Strategy has traveled a long road, from ancient battlefields to Harvard frameworks, from Porter’s competitive forces to Barney’s VRIN resources, from Teece’s dynamic capabilities to the business models of Apple and Thermomix. The common lesson is that competitive advantage is neither given nor permanent. It emerges from careful positioning, from the wise use of resources, and from the ability to adapt. In this journey, IP is not a side character but a protagonist. It builds barriers, protects uniqueness, sustains differentiation, and translates creativity into cash flows.

In a world where knowledge, data, and design drive markets, the firms that understand IP as a strategic discipline will be those that write the next chapters of business success. The story told in this lecture is therefore not just about IP or management in isolation. It is about weaving them together into a coherent narrative of competitive advantage—one in which intellectual property is both the shield that guards value and the sword that creates it. And like all good stories, it leaves us with a clear moral: in the knowledge economy, strategy and IP are inseparable, and only their integration can secure a lasting place in the future.

Here is a video summary of the entire IP Strategy lecture from the CEIPI Master Program IP Law and Management 2025/26: