An Automatic Success

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As a leading worldwide automotive supplier, ZF Friedrichshafen has a large number of patents to register and renew. Head of IP, Karl-Peter Zietlow explains how the company is using CPA’s renewal software to achieve greater output and facilitate a smoother workflow.

ZF Friedrichshafen was founded in 1915 by Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin – of Zeppelin airship fame. The firm originally concentrated on developing and manufacturing transmissions for airships, but by 1918 had moved into the motor vehicle sector. Today the range of ZF products includes transmissions, steering systems and chassis components along with complete axle systems and modules.

The core products manufactured by ZF place the company among the industry’s top three suppliers. With a range of ‘my-Tronic6’ six-speed automatic transmissions designed for passenger cars including the new BMW 7-Series, Audi A8 and new Jaguar models, the chances are that at some point you will drive or have driven in a ZF-facilitated car.

ZF now ranks among the 15 biggest automobile suppliers worldwide. ‘Western Europe is our largest and most important market, accounting for over 68% of our revenues,’ says Karl-Peter. ‘In order to continue offering a full range of innovative products and remain competitive in world automotive markets, ZF invests around 5% of its annual revenues in research and development (R&D).’ Out of a total workforce of 54,500 employees across 125 plants in 26 countries, more than 4,500 work in one of the company’s six R&D centres.

Power in patent management
With 30 years experience as a German and European patent attorney, of which he has spent 17 years at ZF, Karl-Peter is well-versed in how R&D, particularly patent management, has been an essential component and driving force for the firm. ‘In recent years the awareness of the value of IP has remarkably increased. As such, we conducted training courses for our employees in the development and introduced patent managers into the field.’

According to Karl-Peter, patent managers are the vital link between development departments and patent professionals. They remain up-to-date with the state of technology by evaluating recently published patent literature. This facilitates ZF’s own development activities as well as those conducted by competitors. ‘As a result of these efforts,’ he says, ‘the activities of ZF’s inventors have greatly increased.’

‘In recent years the awareness of the value of IP has remarkably increased. As such, we conducted training courses for our employees in the development and introduced patent managers into the field.’

‘In 2005 alone, ZF’s 30-strong IP team filed 599 new patent applications to add to its existing portfolio,’ explains Karl-Peter. With so many patent applications and cases going through, the increasing number of renewals also needed to be addressed. ‘Until recently, ZF had separate patent departments for each product division. However, these divisions were merged in 2003 to create today’s Corporate Intellectual Property Department. It made sense to centralise the renewal process at the same time.’

Progress in software
Since 2003, ZF has been renewing its complete portfolio of over 9,000 existing patent cases centrally, the ease of which ZF greatly attributes to CPA. ‘During the phase of pooling our activities, CPA supported our efforts,’ confirms Karl-Peter. ‘And, by combining our existing system and CPA’s renewal services using CPA’s specially designed two-way interface, we managed to keep our paper reports to a minimum. Smooth co-operation between the two systems has also ensured that ZF has a process that is effective and reliable.’

Indeed, identifying the importance of using cutting-edge software and integrating old and new systems to help move the firm forward is a huge part of what gives ZF its competitive edge. ‘Efficient market development with the help of proficient electronic systems plays an important role in maintaining this advantage,’ concludes Karl-Peter. ‘CPA really impressed us with its ability to integrate its renewal services with our existing third-party software system. ‘As a measure of this and the renewal process success we will be calling on CPA’s domain name management and trademark monitoring services, plus making use of their patent analytics reports. These services will help to drive ZF and the automotive industry to an even brighter future.’

This article first appeared in IP Review, issue 15

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