Generative AI, Defensive Publications, Cross-licensing, Trade secrets, Ingredient branding: 🎯 IP Management Pulse #8

Many IP experts in the IP community at I3PM, the HTB-EPO initiative, and other global IP offices and institutions in national and regional innovation systems have asked Prof. Alexander Wurzer: “where can you be sure not to miss any important IP management content”. In fact, you have to follow a number of interesting feeds  to really keep up with the global developments around IP management. To make this easier he decided to offer his own personal newsletter for IP management. Here you can find the last issues in the archive and also subscribe. A fresh read with all the important IP Management content will be sent to the subscribers every second Thursday at 7.00 (CET), so you can start your day informed.

The next Newsletter will cover the following topics:

Generative AI

Will generative AI change work in the IP industry 🤔? Is that really still a question – it’s just a matter of how quickly and how fundamentally 😲!

With the keywords “𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐫”, Microsoft has presented a paper that is aimed directly at lawyers and looks at the legal requirements in Australia and New Zealand. But the basic logic has nothing to do with these countries. Generative AI is already revolutionizing the profession and new solutions for IP experts are coming onto the market every week.

Defensive Publications

What is Google’s 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐝𝐞𝐟𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐧 𝐩𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐬 🤔? TDCommons is a world for (alleged) inventors who want to avoid patents 😯.

📣 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐝𝐞𝐟𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐛𝐞 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐧 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐈𝐏 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐲. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐝𝐢𝐠𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐥 (𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐱) 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐩𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐞𝐧𝐯𝐢𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐯𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐢𝐬.

Cross-licensing

What is a cross-licensing agreement about 🤔? Ceasefire, recognition, politics, market access, power – or all of the above 🧐? Let’s look at Amazon and Huawei 😲!

Whatever this contract means exactly, one thing is certain: 📣 𝐈𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐲 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐡𝐧𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐲 𝐠𝐚𝐦𝐞, 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐠𝐚𝐦𝐞. 𝐏𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐚 𝐜𝐮𝐫𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐲.

Trade secrets

Can you determine the 𝐯𝐚𝐥𝐮𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐞 𝐬𝐞𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐬 🤔? Clearly R&D effort minus copy success: You can see that again at 𝐆𝐨𝐨𝐠𝐥𝐞 🧐.

📢 𝐈 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐬𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰-𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧. In seconds, competitive advantages from years of R&D work can be handed over to the competition on a silver platter – a single dissatisfied employee can be enough. By the way: “𝐂𝐲𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐚𝐬 𝐚 𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞” now exists.

Ingredient branding

What IP strategy is behind Intel Inside, Shimano, Dolby and Gore-Tex 🤔? Correct: 𝐈𝐧𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐁𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 😮!

📢 𝐈𝐏 𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐬 𝐚 𝐤𝐞𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐮𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐚 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭 𝐞𝐧𝐯𝐢𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭. 𝐓𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐜 𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐈𝐏 𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬, 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐚-𝐝𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧-𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐝𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐩 𝐮𝐧𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐬𝐮𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬.

Whom to follow

Stephen Key shows you on his LinkedIn feed inspiring examples from real companies of how ideas and inventions become successful products on the market. He explains the connections between typical business and marketing strategies of companies and the world of intellectual property. He always does this from the perspective of the inventor and the company.

Paolo Beconcini is raising awareness on his LinkedIn feed of the current situation of counterfeiting worldwide, with a particular focus on China and the USA. This includes new discussions, e.g. on the challenges of AI in the creation of fake images and other potentially harmful online content. He also supports the IP Business Academy in awareness-raising and teaching activities.

How to optimize your scope of patent protection? – Case example: Divided infringement

Drafting patent applications is a challenging task anyway, but it becomes even more difficult if the requirements of different jurisdictions should be considered. A drafting style working for one jurisdiction may cause major problems in other jurisdictions. Many problems could be avoided if they were considered at the drafting stage.

Interview with Stefan Brehm about AI-based Patent Search

Patent information can be used in a company for many purposes and is not only helpful for patent experts, but also other company functions such as e.g. product engineers can profit from it. What do you think is the role of intuitive patent search tools to make patent information more accessible to all company functions?

Stefan Brehm: Time is precious and users are reluctant to waste it on long onboarding processes or complicated navigation structures. A simple and intuitive user interface is an important prerequisite for being able to work efficiently…

IP portfolio development of social media companies

Social media companies today are more and more connected to other services of their parent companies, which is best illustrated by Meta, which includes Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and others. But their competitors are also increasingly offering a wide range of services, such as Teams, Skype and LinkedIn, all from Microsoft, or the game streaming platform Twitch from Amazon. And newcomers from China, such as TikTok from ByteDance and WeChat from Tencent, are also gaining more and more market share.

David Perkins has analysed how the increasingly diverse activities of social media companies are also reflected in their patent portfolios, using the example of Meta’s Quest 3 headset, and how their portfolio management looks like.

Porter’s Five Forces

Porter’s Five Forces framework is used for strategic industry analysis. It was developed by Harvard Business School professor Michael Porter in 1979. Michael Porter’s Five Forces of competition can be used to examine and analyze the competitive structure of an industry by looking at five forces of competition that influence and shape the industry’s profit potential. Furthermore, Porter’s Five Forces have become a central concept to strategic thinking in business and management. IP can be seen as an instrument to influence Porter’s Five Forces.