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🎯 IP Management Pulse #51
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Your inbox-insider from Prof. Wurzer every two weeks
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Here are the hot topics from 4. December - 17. December 2025
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NEWS
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New IP-driven business models in biotech | Licensing of copyright protected characters | SEP licensing models in the automotive industry | Steady worldwide growth in design applications
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RESSOUCES
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The email course business development | How to use as an IP expert the IPBA Connect Platform
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DEEP DIVES
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Communicating complexity simply: making expertise accessible without losing credibility | Rewiring IP management for a decarbonising shipping and logistics world | IP licensing: tax, compliance, and global regulations
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IP MANAGEMENT LEARNINGS
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Protecting motion design in ecommerce – what the new EU design rules mean
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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 newsletter will take a short break over the holidays and will be back on 15. January. I wish you and your families a relaxing holiday season.
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New IP-driven business models in biotech
XOMA Royalty Corporation introduced a new IP-driven business model in biotech, moving away from drug development toward royalty aggregation. Instead of commercializing drug candidates itself, XOMA acquires economic rights to royalties derived from sales of patented drugs of their pharma and biotech partners. It offers non-dilutive, non-recourse capital in return for these rights and builds a broad portfolio across multiple assets, indications and trial stages. Revenue is generated when milestones are achieved and products reach commercialization. This approach spreads technical and clinical risk while turning IP-backed royalty revenues into a scalable, financing-driven biotech business model.
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What IP experts can learn from it
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XOMA’s model shows IP experts that patents and royalty revenues can underpin entirely new business models, not just protect and monetize individual products. Royalty and milestone-related income generating assets can be aggregated, valued and financed independently of drug development and sales. For IP practitioners, this highlights the importance of carefully drafting contractual and royalty terms, as these clauses determine long-term economic value. It also demonstrates how IP strategy can enable non-dilutive funding and risk diversification. IP experts who understand these models can better advise clients on structuring contracts to unlock future financial flexibility, not just legal protection.
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Background information on the IPBA Connect platform
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IP protection in the life sciences on the digital IP lexicon 🧭dIPlex by Christian Heubeck
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Licensing of copyright protected characters
OpenAI and The Walt Disney Company entered into a licensing agreement allowing OpenAI to use Disney’s copyright protected characters and creative assets within Sora, OpenAI’s video generation model. The agreement addresses long-standing copyright concerns around AI-generated characters by moving from unlicensed generation to a mutual framework. Finally, Disney gains a secure way to explore generative AI for storytelling and content creation, while OpenAI receives lawful access to iconic IP that users frequently reference. The deal marks a shift from litigation to negotiated collaboration between AI developers and major IP rights holders.
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What IP experts can learn from it
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This case shows that licensing and not litigation is becoming the preferred solution for AI copyright conflicts. IP experts can see how clearly defined usage rights, scope limitations, and brand safeguards allow AI innovation while preserving the value of creative IP. It highlights that copyright protected characters are not “training data problems” alone but commercial assets that can be licensed like any other IP. For IP consultants, the lesson is to proactively design licensing frameworks for AI use, anticipate new exploitation models, and position IP rights as enablers of innovation. The future of AI and copyright will be negotiated, not fought out in court.
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Background information on the IPBA Connect platform
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SEP licensing models in the automotive industry
OPPO and Audi concluded a licensing agreement under which OPPO licenses its cellular standard essential patents (SEPs) to Audi for use in connected vehicles. The deal covers key mobile communication standards, enabling Audi to implement connectivity features without litigation risks. It reflects a shift in the automotive sector toward negotiated, FRAND-based SEP licenses rather than legal enforcement. For OPPO, the agreement monetizes its telecom patent portfolio beyond smartphones; for Audi, it secures legal certainty and uninterrupted access to standardized technologies essential for modern vehicles. The agreement signals increasing maturity in automotive SEP licensing structures.
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What IP experts can learn from it
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This case illustrates how SEP licensing in the automotive industry is moving from confrontation to structured cooperation. IP experts can see that clear licensing frameworks reduce litigation risk, speed up market access, and create predictability for both licensors and implementers. It highlights the importance of cross-industry licensing competence, as telecom IP increasingly underpins automotive innovation. For IP consultants, the lesson is to proactively design scalable licensing models, align technology standards with business strategies, and position SEP portfolios as long-term income sources rather than litigation tools.
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Background information on the IPBA Connect platform
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The Internet of Things Meets SEP Licensing in the 📑IP Management Letters
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Steady worldwide growth in design applications
The WIPO World Intellectual Property Indicators 2025 report shows that industrial design activity continued to grow in 2024, with design applications rising by around 2.6 % to an estimated 1.22 million globally. India, the United States and the European Union all recorded a notable surge, but China remained the major contributor to total design filings worldwide. Around one third of all design applications filed at foreign IP offices were from Chinese applicants, while Korea showed the highest filing activity per capita. Only five industry sectors were responsible for close to 63 % of all design applications, showing the industry differences in design protection.
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What IP experts can learn from it
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The steady rise in design filings demonstrates that aesthetic product features are increasingly valued internationally, not only for protection but also for differentiation in competitive markets. IP experts should help clients recognise design rights as strategic assets that complement patents and trademarks, particularly in customer-facing industries. They should build tailored awareness programmes showing how design protection supports brand value and market differentiation. As cross-border design protection is evolving, IP experts can guide innovators on filing strategies, using instruments like the WIPO Hague System, to maximise design value and integrate design rights into broader commercial and innovation strategies.
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Resources on the IPBA Connect platform
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Design Rights: Protecting Visual Innovation on the digital IP lexicon 🧭dIPlex by Malgorzata Zyla
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In the 🌱Resource Hub, IP experts find ready-to-use playbooks, templates and tools to sharpen positioning, visibility and client conversion. This section highlights selected resources and shows how they fit into modern, strategic IP practice.
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IP experts discuss the Email Course Business Development
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“The best hint of this course is that you don’t need to change who you are to do BD, but rather to use the strengths you already have to build your business.”
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Aline Ferreira de Carvalho da Silva
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Aline is a self-employed lawyer in Brazil and lecturer at multiple universities. She advises clients in Intellectual Property, contract, and strategic litigation matters.
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The Email Course Business Development
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The Email Course “Business Development for IP Experts” shows IP professionals how to turn expertise into mandates through clear positioning, trust-based communication and practical, low effort actions. It explains business development in an IP-specific way, without sales pressure or generic marketing tactics.
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BEST PRACTISE: How to use as an IP expert the IPBA Connect Platform
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“As a subject matter expert for patent information in the steel industry, I could present my knowledge to a vast community of relevant in-house patent professionals. This was possible by the use of established and valued social media channels and blogs. And finally, being a subject matter expert helped me to create new business contacts in the steel industry.”
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As a mechanical engineer, Sascha Kamhuber is working in the patent field since 2006 as CEO of infoapps GmbH. His focus was always to make patent information available, not only for the patent experts, but especially for engineers and researchers in companies. Therefore, he is designing patent tools, which have a high degree of intuitive operability. Also, his solutions are focusing on the needs of specific industries, such as the steel industry.
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Through a focused content campaign, Sascha Kamhuber was positioned as an expert in using patent intelligence to drive innovation in the steel industry. The case shows how to communicate easy to use patent infomation as a strategic decision support tool, explaining how patent analytics can inform R&D, reduce IP risk and enable measurable competitive advantage.
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Visible Council the IP Expert Branding Column
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Communicating complexity simply: making expertise accessible without losing credibility
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By columnist Giulia Donato, Brand & Communication Consultant at people and brand strategies
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The article explains why many IP experts remain underutilized despite strong expertise: they communicate their knowledge often in ways that are not decision-relevant. In fast moving, multi-stakeholder environments, expertise must be translated from technical language into clear business opportunities and risks. Communicating complexity simply is not about reducing depth, but about making expertise usable. Experts who focus on relevance and business outcomes are trusted earlier and invited into decision-making processes. This ability to translate rather than broadcast builds authority, strengthens personal branding, and allows expertise to scale through trust, clarity, and shareability.
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My Favorite from the 📝IP Business Academy Blog
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Simone Frattasi – Rewiring IP management for a decarbonising shipping and logistics world
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Simone Frattasi, Head of Global IP at Maersk, is featured in this article for leading transformative IP management in the shipping and logistics sector, an industry under intense pressure to decarbonise. He has integrated IP into Maersk’s business strategy, aligning patents, trademarks and IP risk management processes with innovation and sustainability goals. Under his leadership, Maersk co-founded the ESG Smart Pool, a collaborative patent pool for energy transition technologies, and helped launch the IP Charter for Energy Transition (IP4ET) to educate and coordinate climate-related IP practices. Frattasi also fosters knowledge sharing through the Nordic IP Day and contributes to the patent portfolio management best practice.
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My Favorite from the 🎧Podcast IP Management Voice
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#64 IP licensing: tax, compliance, and global regulations
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This podcast episode examines IP licensing as a multidisciplinary challenge requiring integrated legal, financial and regulatory expertise. It highlights tax and transfer pricing risks, antitrust and competition law compliance, proper accounting under IFRS and US GAAP, and export control and sanctions compliance. Rather than a burden, strong governance and compliance structures are presented as strategic enablers that protect value and unlock the long-term financial potential of IP assets.
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In the 📑IP Management Letter series, IP experts find case-based narratives that show how strategic IP management works in real companies and industries, with practical insights they can directly apply to their own portfolios and client work.
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Protecting motion design in ecommerce – what the new EU design rules mean
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The new EU design rules broaden protection so that motion and animated elements (like transitions or dynamic UI effects) can qualify as design rights, not just static visuals. This means companies can now protect and enforce rights over how their digital experiences move, not only how they look, strengthening ecommerce IP strategies.
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