Siemens is not only of the most active patent applicants in Germany, they are a leading company in digitalization. With approx. 80 bn. in revenues and a true global footprint, Siemens develops path breaking solutions in many fields of the digital transformation: sustainable energy, intelligent infrastructure, future of manufacturing, digital services and cyber security. Siemens holds nearly 60.000 granted patents and works with more than 400 IP experts around the globe on developing new IP strategies and creating value with intellectual property. The enterprise develops and applies the latest methodologies like invention-on-demand to keep pace with a challenging environment. The IP department of Siemens does not only have to cope with a huge workload of around 35 inventions to cover every working day and filing around 16 priority applications – the aim is to create high quality patents to generate real economic value by means of IP. Beat Weibel, Chief IP Counsel at Siemens states that the company is not as much in need of many patents but the right ones.

Alexander Wurzer gave a key note as an external speaker at the Siemens IP conference (SIPCon) on 16th May 2017. The speech was on IP-Strategy for exclusive consumer benefits and value proposition and showed current examples from the European industry. Prof. Wurzer explained the rising complexity of IP management caused by digitization, the opportunities for IP management within digital business models and described the correlation between design thinking and IP design, based on case studies from Rittal, Claas, Vorwerk and Schneider.

The slide deck “An IP strategy for exclusive customer benefits and value propositions – current examples form the European industry” is available here.