One aspect of a patent strategy is a foreign patent filing strategy.

But were should patent applications be filed?

Two selection criteria are a market's size and rate of growth.

Germany, for example plans to put more digital solutions in their factories than the US does. Apparently:

Quote

17 percent of German and U.S. manufacturers say they’ve already applied predictive maintenance solutions in their facilities, but over 40 percent of Germans say they plan to do so in the next one or two years, whereas only 24 percent of Americans can say the same. And while 39 percent of German manufacturers plan to employ autonomous robots and assistance systems in the next couple years, only 20 percent of Americans are as ambitious.

It would appear that a European patent application (which covers Germany) or a German national patent application would be a good idea for IoT solutions for predictive maintenance, autonomous robots and assistance systems. 

Other ideas for a foreign patent filing strategy include:

• Build a defensive position by filing patent applications in countries in which your company has a business interest.
• Increase your negotiating power by filing patent applications in countries in which your competitors have business interests, and in countries that manufacture products in the company’s technology area.
• Scale the scope of geographical patent coverage in accordance with technical idea importance.