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DPMAimpuls 2024

Metaverse, mindset change and medium-sized enterprises

In direct dialogue with innovative companies: for the second time, the DPMA hosted DPMAimpuls, with guests from industry, small and medium-sized enterprises, associations, organisations and the patent judiciary. Following the very successful inaugural event last year, the informal dialogue was this time held under the motto “digital transformation” – a topic of immense importance to the future that is of great interest to society, businesses, politics and state institutions alike.

With DPMAimpuls, the DPMA has established yet another opportunity for exchange in addition to the DPMAnutzerforum and the regular DPMAnutzerbeirat. It is specifically aimed at large companies and medium-sized enterprises with a high number of applications. The group of participants is based on the future-oriented and current topic to be discussed.

“We want you to feel invited to an informal discourse and an immediate, direct dialogue, both among yourselves and with us, the DPMA!” With these words, DPMA President Eva Schewior welcomed the guests on 12 June 2024. DPMAimpuls was intended to open up an “exciting and diverse communication format,” President Schewior said. She added that the DPMA hoped that the joint exchange of ideas would provide fresh impetus for a progress-oriented and innovative cooperation with its applicants.

Dr Maria Skottke-Klein, Vice-President of the DPMA, also considered it “more important than ever to host this exchange format” and was convinced of the benefits for all participants: “The digital transformation affects all of us – companies, public institutions, the whole of society. It is changing the way we work, communicate and organise our daily lives.”

The next wave of digital innovation

Digital transformation has gained significant momentum worldwide since the COVID-19 pandemic. We’re currently experiencing a wave of digital innovation: the extraordinary development of generative AI in particular, but also all forms of technically connected digital communication, cloud computing and big data as well as automation and the internet continue to drive development forward. New technologies are emerging at a rapid pace and are often based on software, algorithms and AI-generated content. However, this poses major challenges to today's territorial systems for IP protection under the current legal framework. For example, it is often difficult to define what is considered patentable, and this definition is handled differently due to divergent national laws and jurisdictions. This year's DPMAimpuls provided a forum for dialogue on certain topics where the digital world, innovation and patent protection meet.

Dr Roland Philippi, Head of the Directorate-General 1 “Strategies and Policy Issues” at the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, took part in the event from Berlin via video call. The Directorate-General under Dr Philippi is responsible for the federal government's High-Tech Strategy and cross-sectional tasks relating to digitalisation, innovation and transfer. With his presentation, Dr Philippi gave an insight into the mission “Securing Germany's and Europe's digital and technological sovereignty and harnessing the potential of digitalisation”. According to Dr Philippi, Germany has an efficient and world-renowned science and research system. He emphasised that patents and intellectual property were important topics for the German government.

The importance of SEPs

The next speaker was Professor Dr Bernhard Grill, Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS, who spoke about the importance of Standard Essential Patents (SEPs) for the digital transformation in communication and media, which would not be possible without standards. Professor Grill explained this using the example of successful Fraunhofer audio codecs. His brief report on the EU initiative on SEPs led to a lively discussion among the participants.

Using illustrative examples from his professional experience, patent attorney Richard Bennett from SSMpatent provided information about patents in the metaverse – a virtual space in which digital and physical reality converge. For example, Bennett explained, a doctor could be assisted during medical interventions by having images displayed during surgery. Bennett also presented ideas about how to protect computer-implemented inventions.

After lunch break, Joachim Bee, Head of the IP department at Robert Bosch GmbH and member of the DPMAnutzerbeirat, shed light on the challenges of digital transformation from the perspective of large enterprises. In Bee's view, digital transformation requires high investments in order to keep up with the competition, but it can also open up new business sectors and therefore be decisive for business success. According to Bee, adequate IP protection for digital innovation is therefore all the more important.

New ways of thinking

Dr Thomas Helfer from Bayern Innovativ GmbH stressed the importance of digital transformation for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). He said that, first of all, it was crucial to recognise the need for transformation and to initiate a process of rethinking. However, in order to successfully rethink and strategically implement these thoughts, a mindset change must take place at all hierarchical levels, especially at the management level.

As the name suggests, DPMAimpuls is intended to provide impulses. At the end of the session, Dr Klaus Dieter Herrmann, Deputy Director General of the “Mechanical Technology” examination cluster at the DPMA, reported on how the impulses from last year's event had been implemented: since then, there have been some exciting workshops with industry and patent attorneys and there is now an intensive dialogue with the chemical and pharmaceutical industry.

As in the previous year, the moderated discussions between the keynote speeches were used extensively, also for controversial exchanges. We are already looking forward to seeing what new ideas will be discussed at next year's DPMAimpuls 2025.

Bilder: DPMA

Last updated: 9 December 2024