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“We were not aware of how dramatically patent activities in Germany/Europe have changed in conjunction with digitization. We cannot say for sure if patenting is relevant for us, but your presentation highlighted the urgency for us to consider this matter. The case study examples were impactful. They were excellent examples that practically illustrated the subject and were easily understandable. The principle of “Ignorance of the law is no excuse” made us realize that we urgently need to address this issue. There are indeed opportunities in it, not just risks.”

“Your training was extremely informative and helpful for us! Particularly, the increasing economic significance of digital patent applications and patent activities in Europe impressed us greatly. After your training, we are much more aware of the current situation and are working on measures to formulate successful patent applications for our company. Your case studies and practical examples were very illustrative in this regard! Additionally, the demonstration of how to make digital solutions patentable using patent types was very beneficial, as this knowledge was only rudimentarily present in our company.”

“Prof. Wurzer’s presentation was extremely informative and helpful for us. Since we have not had any concrete contact with the patentability of digital objects and digital solutions, but on the other hand a large focus of our development and business activities is based on software solutions, the illustrative case studies and the structured approach by means of the PDCA cycle were very well suited to make us aware of the urgency as well as the economic significance and approach. The protection of our know-how (digital business models, customer journeys) via digital patents will also be an important economic success factor for our company.”

“The training is an eye-opener for medium-sized companies and will fundamentally change the way we handle our digital innovations sustainably.”

“Thank you very much for the inspiring training. We will take the content you showed and realign our approach of protecting our intellectual property. The very clearly explained cases from other industries can also be applied to us using the same methodology.”

“Thank you for the inspiring and enlightening training from the IP Business Academy. Before the training, we were not aware of the scale of patent activity on digital and software-based solutions in Europe. For us, patenting the technical implementation of digital objects such as use cases, customer journeys or business models is very relevant. The examples given were powerful and clear in showing the economic importance of digital patents. It is clear that patentability can be achieved through the DIN/ISO-compliant application of the PDCA cycle. The use of patent types for this purpose also became clear. We previously had no knowledge of these topics in-house and will be happy to take advantage of the advice offered on this subject at the beginning of next year.”

„We learned a lot about how digital solutions can be made patentable.”

"Your training in April 2023 and the discussions with you have once again given us at Seepex many new insights into the (as we have learned) dramatically growing importance of digital patent applications. The value of the event for our company and our digital solutions can be seen in two ways: On the one hand, there is the question of how we as a company have to position ourselves in the area of ​​our own digital developments and generated IP in order to generate inventions with extremely broad economic value that are not only technology-driven, but also systematically and procedurally supported top-down from the digital business model. And on the other hand, there is the question of FTO and the special risks that arise due to the surprisingly strong increase in the area of ​​digital patents (at use case level), which often threaten the success of our own developments unnoticed by us. I can say that your training was an “eye opener” for many of the participating developers and product managers and created the necessary awareness. It became more than clear that we need to integrate the aspect of digital patents much more closely into our development processes in both respects."

“The development of digital objects and software-based solutions has long been an important topic in our company, from the development department to the board of directors. In this way, we can improve customer benefit and customer loyalty through appropriate solutions and new business models – as part of our devices (in the sense of assistance systems, automated controls and processes up to autonomy) and as digital environment of the devices. There have been and are already some disputes over intellectual property rights with market competitors. So far we have probably been – as we learned in Prof. Wurzer’s presentation – sometimes too focused on the technicality of patenting software. Prof. Wurzer’s interesting presentation showed us – also through the very clear practical examples – further ways in which we can protect our ideas even better."

„Due to the increasing desire and need – also on LAPP’s side – to patent our digital solutions and service ideas, it is important to refresh this knowledge and make it available to all R&D colleagues at LAPP. We addressed over 80 colleagues worldwide, over 40 took part live from Europe and some from Asia. By being able to record the free webinar, we can also make the content available to colleagues who were unable to attend. Prof. Wurzer explained the topic of patenting, which is often dry for developers, in a lively, very practical and example-oriented manner, thus sharpening the understanding of how digital and software-based solutions can and cannot be patented. Especially for a solution provider like LAPP in the field of wired connection solutions, further development towards holistic solutions and services is relevant and the right IP protection is important in order to survive in the competition. During and after the webinar, some colleagues exchanged ideas to further develop their ideas. The people from our “digital business areas” in particular have great interest in implementing the knowledge they have learned now. Free advice on this will certainly be helpful and supportive in the next phases.“

“Basic knowledge was available [before the training] – but not in the depth and also not as concretely as it is pragmatically conveyed in the training. There is certainly in-depth knowledge in the respective specialist departments – the group of participants in the training consisted exclusively of digital experts and the training was an absolute enrichment for them.”

„Before the training with Prof. Wurzer, we had a rough idea of the development and growth of digital patents. Although the enormous growth is a logical consequence of technical progress, we were not aware of the “explosion” in the number of patents to this extent. According to the information we took away from the information workshop, patenting the customer journey is very relevant in our case. You patent what is visible to the user or from the outside, not the code! That’s fascinating – and we didn’t expect something like that to be possible at all. Practical examples from the industry made the explanations clear and understandable.“

"The training course with Alexander Wurzer was very valuable. We were unaware of the possibility to file patents for use cases and customer journeys, and were actually considering not to proceed with patenting our solution before our session. The opportunity for a start-up like Parqio to focus on and be able to protect the design of our digital solution is nothing short of revolutionary."