Profile

Alexander Wurzer

Alexander Wurzer (born 1969) studied physics as well as microbiology and molecular biology at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University (LMU) in Munich and received his doctorate from the Faculty of Physics (Dr. rer. nat.). Since the mid-1990s he has worked in the field of IP management👉 Strategic and operative handling of IP to maximize value. (IP = intellectual property👉 Creations of the mind protected by legal rights.) for international institutions and companies. Alex has headed the Steinbeis Transfer Institute for Intellectual Property Management at the Steinbeis University in Berlin since 2003.

His research interests are in the economics and management of technology and innovation👉 Practical application of new ideas to create value., as well as all issues related to value creation through IP. He is an internationally recognized expert for IP valuation , especially for FRAND issues and license transactions. He is the chairman of the DIN working committee for patent👉 A legal right granting exclusive control over an invention for a limited time. evaluation DIN 77100 and has published the textbook work “Valuation of Patents”.

Academic Leadership and Contributions to IP Education

Since 2004 he has regularly worked for the European Patent Academy of the European Patent Office as a lecturer in advanced training. Since 2006, Wurzer has been a course director at the Center d’Etudes Internationales de la Propriété Industrielle (CEIPI) at the University of Strasbourg. In 2007 he was appointed Professor Associé at the University of Strasbourg. He established the IP Business Academy for IP Management at CEIPI. He directs the Master’s program “Intellectual Property Law and Management” (MIPLM) as well as the university diploma program for IP Business Administration and the academic IP Management training of the European Patent Office. Since the 2023/24 academic year, the diploma has been awarded jointly with the European Patent Office.

Here is a lecture on valuation according to the DIN 77100 from the CEIPI certificate course IP Valuation I:

Teaching IP management globally

In addition, he teaches as a lecturer for IP management and IP valuation at numerous international universities and institutions of national innovation systems. Here are some examples:

INAPI Chile

Webinar of CEIPI and INAPI: IP Protection of Digital Use Cases and Gamification

Latin America UP SME Helpdesk

Webinar of the Latin America IP SME Helpdesk: “Safe Digitalization through Intellectual Property, from Europe to the world”

NIMPO South Africa

Follow-up to the NIPMO Colloquium: Driving innovation and positioning Intellectual Property commercialisation for a better and inclusive South Africa at 23-24.02.2022

WIPO-CNIPA China

WIPO-CNIPA Advanced Training Course on Management and Commercialization of Intellectual Property Assets 17.-28.10.2022

Standards for the quality of IP management

He is chairman of the DIN working committee for IP management on DIN 77006. In addition, he provides training for industrial companies on all issues of IP management, in particular on standard-compliant IP design (DIN 77006/ISO 56005) and the implementation of the standard. The les Nouvelles article from 2022 on quality standards in IP management can be downloaded (free of charge) from the European Patent Office server here.

IP management in companies and organizations

He helps companies adapt their IP strategy👉 Approach to manage, protect, and leverage IP assets. and practice to the challenges of the digital transformation and develop sustainable competitive advantages from their IP position. Together with the managers and the board of directors, he helps making the digital transformation fruitful for the company. Here are some examples of training courses with comments from the board members:

Electrical engineering

Training at Theben AG: Protection of digital solutions with IP-design

Aerospace

Training at TESAT-Spacecom: Quality standard compliant IP management for communication technology

Electronics

Training at Rohde & Schwarz: The role of IP in the digital transformation

Energy industry

Training at Sonnen GmbH: Protection of new digital business models

“

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.
Martin SchneiderChief Technology Officer at Starteam

“

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.
Michael MatthesiusChief Technical Officer at Theben AG

“

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.
Dr. Martin KrausManaging director / COO at QUNDIS GmbH

“

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

“

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.
Josef VeileCTO at Groninger

“

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.
Werner MalcharekGlobal CTO at Luminator Technology Group

“

We learned a lot about how digital solutions can be made patentable.
Dirk ReznikCEO at AMC International

“

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.
Maik MantheyChief Technology Officer at CLAAS Group

“

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.
Isabelle HochbergerCo-Founder at Dr. Q

“

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.
Ketil HoigaardCEO & Co-founder of Parqio

Business Development and Social Media support for IP experts

He advises and supports IP experts, IP law firms, innovators and industry executives in their social media work, PR/marketing, and business development:

Business Development

Best Practice in Awareness Building for IP at noventive: Interview with Robert Henke

Awareness Building

Best Practice in Awareness Building for IP at Abel + Imray: Interview with John Austin-Brooks

Content Creation

Awareness building for IP in times of “New Work” and digitalization: Example Onsagers

Learning

IP Awareness Building under New Work Conditions: Customer journey – How to create a successful path for new clients?

Collaboration with institutions of national innovation systems

He advises institutions worldwide and is part of training programs such as ECAP III (2010) EU-ASEAN Project on the Protection of Intellectual Property Rights with the European Union Intellectual property Office (EUIPO) in Bangkok, Hanoi and Jakarta. In 2013 he was a member of the European Commission’s Intellectual Property Valuation Expert Group (here you get the final report).

In 2015-2016, Alex was a member of the reflection group for Austria’s national IP strategy, which was published in February 2017. Since 2015 he has been spokesman for the Diesel Board of Trustees. Since 2010 he has been an honorary member of International Institute for IP Management (I3PM) founded as an alumni organization for his degree programs. Today, I3PM’s Committee Chairs collectively have over 300,000 followers on LinkedIn, this was the 10 Years anniversary celebration at WIPO where I3PM has an observer status. Since 2019 Alex is honorary advisor to the I3PM board.

In 2015-2017, Alexander supported the Japanese Patent Office in establishing its YouTube channel as part of the “Global Business Strategy and Intellectual Property” initiative. Here is an educational video from this initiative with the JPO on the types of IP strategies in technology sourcing and M&A.