The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) driven by data is a process, where smart connected devices, faster wireless internet and artificial intelligence are transforming the global economy. It leads to an increase of internet traffic with an estimated share of 25% caused by connected devices in 2025. The digital technologies account for 10% of all innovations, with annual growth rates for patent applications about 20%. The inventions of the 4IR can be found in every area like healthcare, transport or agriculture.

In the concept of the 4IR, the approach for Agriculture 4.0 is identical to that of Industry 4.0. In both cases the aim is to intelligently connect production processes and control them based on real society, customer, and market needs. Agriculture 4.0 builds on the innovations and experiences of digitalization in the Industry 4.0. Digitalization is a game-changer in each and every industry and agriculture is no exception. With the fifth generation of mobile communications standards (5G), all networked things can be connected to the Internet, making it possible to monitor, digitalize, control and optimize the entire agricultural process. If you want to learn more about the 4IR in agriculture and the role of IP, join the Webinar on 24.02.2022 from 10:00 to 11:30 am (CET). Register at: Safe digitalisation through Intellectual Property: from Europe to the world | Latin America IP SME Helpdesk (livestorm.co).

The Webinar provides insights on the principles of inventing for digital patents, with examples in agriculture like “precision farming” or “assistance systems”, and on how the path a company follows to digitalize its business safely can be achieved through the correct identification of the Intellectual Property-related aspects like software, design, patents, how to avoid infringement of the IP rights of other companies, and protection of the own innovation.

For the protection of a new digital business model digital patents can be used. The application of the digital logics leads to the increase of either efficiency or effectiveness in the digital business model. In Agriculture 4.0 examples for the enabling of objects can be autonomous driving, optimal route calculation and coordination between the harvester and the tractor on the field. The university case study on Claas / 365 FarmNet (Smart Farming) explains the application of IP design for the design and IP protection of digital business models.

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If you want to learn more about digital business models in agriculture 4.0 and beyond, please have a look at the CEIPI university course: Certified University Course IP and Industry 4.0 – IP Business Academy