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IP Management Pulse #48
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Your inbox-insider from Prof. Wurzer every two weeks
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Here are the topics of this issue:
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- The role of patents in the restructuring of OpenAI
- How to navigate patent cliffs with M&As
- How important are the patenting activities of public research organisations (PROs)
- How do licensing models look in the age of AI
- The IP Awareness Companion
- How to keep your personal brand relevant and real
- Explainable AI: how it prevents hallucinations and builds trust
- IP protection in the life sciences
- How IP shapes competitive gaming economics
- How software patents redefine IP strategy
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I wish you an exciting and informative read. I look forward to your comments and our exchange on LinkedIn.
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The role of patents in the restructuring of OpenAI
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OpenAI’s new structure separates ownership, governance, and usage rights in a way that directly reflects how IP functions in complex corporate relationships. The nonprofit OpenAI Foundation now oversees the for-profit OpenAI Group PBC, while Microsoft holds about 27 % of the for-profit arm and long-term access to OpenAI’s models until at least 2032. Crucially, Microsoft gains usage rights — but not ownership — over the core model IP, while OpenAI retains full control of its consumer hardware and brand assets. The result is a clear contractual distinction between who owns the IP and who may use it under specific conditions.
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What IP managers can learn from it
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For IP managers, OpenAI’s restructuring is a reminder that collaboration governance starts with defining boundaries. In parent–subsidiary or shareholder settings, ownership must remain clearly assigned to protect strategic autonomy. In external collaborations, usage rights — such as access, adaptation, and commercialization — should be precisely limited in scope, duration, and field of use. OpenAI’s model shows how this clarity allows companies to attract strategic partners and investment while maintaining control of their most valuable intangible assets.
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More resources from the platform:
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Collaborative IP Management
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How to navigate patent cliffs with M&As
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Novo Nordisk’s unsolicited $9 billion offer for Metsera shows how acquisitions are increasingly used to strengthen innovation pipelines. As key patents on its obesity drugs near expiry, Novo is securing access to Metsera’s early-stage research programs, including proprietary data, biotechnological know-how, and pending patent families. These upstream assets extend the company’s technological horizon and ensure a flow of new, protectable inventions that can replace maturing products. The move illustrates a shift in the pharmaceutical industry — where IP strategy is no longer limited to defending existing patents but also to acquiring the research capacity that keeps the innovation pipeline alive.
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What IP managers can learn from it
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For IP managers, Novo’s strategy highlights the need to think of IP portfolios as companions of innovation, not static collections of rights. Managing IP strategically means ensuring continuity: when one product’s protection expires, another — based on newer research — must already be in place. This requires close coordination between R&D and IP functions, active scouting of acquisition targets, and due diligence that values research data and know-how as much as granted patents. The key lesson is that long-term IP resilience depends on the steady renewal of the innovation pipeline behind the patents.
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More resources from the platform:
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IP protection in the life sciences
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How important are the patenting activities of public research organisations (PROs)
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The European Patent Office’s report “The Role of European Public Research in Patenting and Innovation” shows how public research organisations have become key players in Europe’s patent landscape. Between 2001 and 2020, they filed nearly 63,000 European patent applications, about 5 % of all filings from European applicants. Their strongest activity lies in biotech, pharmaceuticals, and advanced instrumentation, with fast growth in digital technologies. The study makes clear that innovation in Europe now flows as much from publicly funded labs as from corporate R&D — and that public research is an essential source of high-value IP for industry collaborations and spin-offs.
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What IP managers can learn from it
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For IP managers, this means public research should be on the strategic radar. Monitoring PRO patent filings gives early signals of emerging technologies and partnership opportunities. As many PROs now co-apply for patents with companies or license IP to industry, clear ownership and usage rights agreements are critical. And since a patent of a research organization can block as effectively as a corporate one, public research must be included in competitive and FTO analyses. The takeaway: strong IP management depends on engaging with, not overlooking, Europe’s growing public-research IP ecosystem.
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More resources from the platform:
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How OLED Technology Transfer Created a Global Display Revolution
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How do licensing models look in the age of AI
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Getty Images has signed a multi-year licensing agreement with Perplexity AI to supply its image library for use in Perplexity’s AI-powered search tools. The deal gives Perplexity access to millions of curated visuals while ensuring creators are credited and compensated. It marks a shift toward licensed content in AI development — replacing unlicensed data scraping with formal IP agreements that define provenance, access, and long-term usage rights.
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What IP managers can learn from it
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The Getty–Perplexity deal shows how licensing in the AI era is becoming a data partnership rather than a one-off rights transfer. IP managers must define usage rights precisely — what can be used for training, display, or output generation — and ensure ownership boundaries remain clear. The case highlights that proactive licensing frameworks can turn data assets into recurring revenue while giving AI developers legal certainty. In short, managing IP in the AI age means managing access, not just ownership.
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More resources from the platform:
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Turning IP into Value – Smart Licensing Models
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The IP Awareness Companion
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In today’s fast-moving innovation economy, IP experts face a fundamental challenge: the gap between technical expertise and strategic visibility. Many patent attorneys, IP managers, and consultants have deep legal or technical know-how, but struggle to make their expertise visible to the right audiences, to explain complex IP topics in business language, and to position themselves as trusted thought leaders.
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In professional services, being known is often as important as being knowledgeable. Even the most skilled patent attorney or IP strategist cannot build trust at scale if their expertise remains confined to one-on-one client interactions. A neutral platform, such as IPBA Connect, can provide the necessary infrastructure for visibility: curated content formats, editorial quality standards, academic and institutional credibility, and an established audience that actively seeks expertise rather than marketing.
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IP Subject Matter Expert Voices:
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“The IPBA Connect platform stands out for the exceptional quality and depth of its community of IP professionals. The dedication of the IPBA team to sharing practical, business-focused insights is unmatched. As an Ambassador, I’ve greatly benefited from the platform’s strong reputation and its consistent efforts to promote meaningful thought leadership—there’s truly no better network for IP professionals to build and sustain their visibility.” Robert Plotkin
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“I wanted to make my profile more visible. The LinkedIn About Tuner helped me find the right words to describe my experience and values. It’s a great tool for anyone who wants their profile to reflect both expertise and personality.” Armelle Fouda-Tala about the LinkedIn about TUNER
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"The platform gave me the opportunity to showcase my expertise at the intersection of AI and law to a much broader audience. It has helped me connect with innovators who are shaping the digital transformation, and positioned my work in a community where IP is seen not just as legal protection but as a driver of ecosystem growth. This visibility has been invaluable for building trust and new collaborations." Sebastian Goebel
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How an IP Subject Matter Expert Turns Digital Visibility into Systematic Business Development
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Evolving with Integrity: how to keep your personal brand relevant and real
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By columnist Giulia Donato, Brand & Communication Consultant at people and brand strategies
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Building a personal brand is not a one-time effort, it’s an ongoing process of evolution. The experts who truly stand out are not necessarily those who post the most or speak the loudest, but those who stay relevant without losing integrity.
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Your personal brand, like any strong brand, is a living system. It evolves through reflection, action, and feedback.
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Sometimes your focus shifts, your market changes, or your expertise grows in a new direction. The key is not to start over, but to listen, adjust, and realign, ensuring that how you show up still reflects who you are and where you want to go.
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Good personal brands are dynamic systems, not monuments.
They grow through dialogue, not perfection.
Measurement is the feedback that keeps that dialogue alive, between you and yourself, and between you and your market.
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Explainable AI: How It Prevents Hallucinations and Builds Trust
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Have you ever wondered whether you can really trust the answers provided by an AI? Many lawyers know the uneasy feeling: an AI delivers a seemingly brilliant legal answer — until it turns out that, for instance, Article 315 of Directive (EU) 2019/789 doesn’t actually exist. In practice, there have already been curious cases where AI tools simply invented non-existent rulings, laws, or paragraphs.
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IP Protection in the Life Sciences: Turning Innovation into Market Success
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In the life sciences, where the limits of medicine, biology, and technology constantly are pushed further, intellectual property (IP) is far more than a legal safeguard. It is the backbone of innovation. Every new therapy or diagnostic tool represents years of research, billions in investment, and extraordinary business risks. Without a well-structured IP strategy, many of these life-changing innovations would never reach the patients who need them.
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Owning the Arena: How IP Shapes Competitive Gaming Economics
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E‑sports has evolved from LAN‑party showmatches to arena‑filling spectacles and global streaming phenomena. Today’s competitive titles reach peak live audiences in the millions, while the broader games market approaches two hundred billion dollars in annual consumer spend. Yet the direct e‑sports economy itself is far smaller and more fragile, relying on …
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Navigating the Digital Transformation in MedTech: How Software Patents Redefine IP Strategy
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The medical-technology industry is undergoing one of the most profound transformations in its history. For decades, value creation revolved around the physical device — the imaging scanner, the surgical instrument, the diagnostic sensor. Success was measured by hardware performance, clinical accuracy, and reliability. But today, that foundation …
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