55 Years Of IP Disruption – An Homage From Down Under

My best wishes go to Dennemeyer! 55 years are a long time and I want to use the opportunity of this anniversary to send a couple of thoughts together with my birthday greetings - from another perspective and, of course, from down under.

What made Dennemeyer so unique and successful in the past decades that it was able to develop from a Luxembourg based patent law firm into the world's most diversified IP full-service provider? From my perspective, Dennemeyer is a key driver - if not the center - of a fundamental transition of the global IP industry. A shift that has led to such massive changes that the buzzword "disruption" is adequate to describe it (even though I personally still prefer the term "transition"). Dennemeyer has been able to adapt to the changes concerning all stakeholders.

Who are these key stakeholders? In its simplest form, there are the IP owners themselves (individuals and corporations) seeking IP rights consistent with their business objectives; governments through their agencies providing the IP infrastructure to obtain IP rights - at the international, national and multilateral or regional levels, and the IP service providers. This latter grouping can be further categorized into:

The traditional attorney services; The commoditized type services (such as renewals); The management services (such as outsourcing). Looking at how all of these stakeholders have changed, shows a high level of disruption (or transition).

IP owners

IP owners are the cornerstone - or ultimate drivers - of the sector in that they seek, demand and require IP rights with certainty while pursuing maximum protection (both in terms of scope and territory). Such rights are being provided in the minimum time frame (usually), at minimum cost but, at the same time, without any reduction in quality of service or outcomes. While these objectives might be considered aspirational, they nonetheless provide the primary drivers for the rise of the Dennemeyer Group that has been able to adapt to their needs quicker and better than most other competitors.

IP service providers

Before considering the IP service providers, it is well worth reviewing the IP life cycle for the purpose of broadly categorizing the activities (services and/or products) performed (and by whom) in a typical IP life cycle. The patent life cycle is used here for illustrative purposes, but other registrable IP rights such as trademarks and industrial designs could equally act as an example...