Digital Product Passports: IP as Enabler of Circular Value 2025-04-22
As the EU transitions towards a circular economy, one of the most transformative tools emerging is the Digital Product Passport (DPP).
DPPs aim to ensure that every product comes with a digital identity containing data about its origin, composition, repairability, disassembly, and recyclability.
From electronics and batteries to textiles and construction materials, DPPs will become mandatory in the coming years, fundamentally changing how we design, manufacture, repair, reuse, and recycle goods.
But how does Intellectual Property (IP) intersect with this?
At first glance, DPPs are about transparency and circularity. Yet behind that transparency lie valuable innovations, proprietary designs, and trade secrets.
Striking the right balance between openness and IP protection is essential. On the one hand, DPPs must provide enough information to enable repair, remanufacture, or recycling. On the other, businesses must protect sensitive data that represent competitive advantage.
IP frameworks have a key enabling role:
DPPs aim to ensure that every product comes with a digital identity containing data about its origin, composition, repairability, disassembly, and recyclability.
From electronics and batteries to textiles and construction materials, DPPs will become mandatory in the coming years, fundamentally changing how we design, manufacture, repair, reuse, and recycle goods.
But how does Intellectual Property (IP) intersect with this?
At first glance, DPPs are about transparency and circularity. Yet behind that transparency lie valuable innovations, proprietary designs, and trade secrets.
Striking the right balance between openness and IP protection is essential. On the one hand, DPPs must provide enough information to enable repair, remanufacture, or recycling. On the other, businesses must protect sensitive data that represent competitive advantage.
IP frameworks have a key enabling role:
- Patents and trade secrets protect innovations embedded in materials, disassembly techniques, or recycling processes.
- Trademarks and certifications facilitate compliance, sustainability credentials, and trustworthiness of information in the DPP.
- Standard-essential patents (SEPs) and licensing platforms can govern how DPP technologies, such as blockchain-based traceability or secure digital twins, are deployed across industries.
Moreover, by linking DPPs to patent classifications like Y02W (waste management) or Y02T (transport sustainability), stakeholders can align product design and data with relevant innovation landscapes and policy goals.
The European Commission’s Sustainable Products Initiative outlines how DPPs should be accessible via data carriers (like QR codes), interoperable across borders, and usable throughout the product's lifecycle—from production to end-of-life. This demands IP-aware data governance models, especially where different actors (OEMs, recyclers, software providers) are involved.
Policy Connection:
In March 2024, the European Parliament formally adopted the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation, making DPPs legally binding across key sectors. This policy fortifies the role of DPPs in enabling circularity while presenting new challenges and opportunities for IPR protection in multi-stakeholder environments.
Supporting links:
European Commission – Digital Product Passport: https://data.europa.eu/en/news-events/news/eus-digital-product-passport-advancing-transparency-and-sustainability
The European Commission’s Sustainable Products Initiative outlines how DPPs should be accessible via data carriers (like QR codes), interoperable across borders, and usable throughout the product's lifecycle—from production to end-of-life. This demands IP-aware data governance models, especially where different actors (OEMs, recyclers, software providers) are involved.
Policy Connection:
In March 2024, the European Parliament formally adopted the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation, making DPPs legally binding across key sectors. This policy fortifies the role of DPPs in enabling circularity while presenting new challenges and opportunities for IPR protection in multi-stakeholder environments.
Supporting links:
European Commission – Digital Product Passport: https://data.europa.eu/en/news-events/news/eus-digital-product-passport-advancing-transparency-and-sustainability
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