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How do you transform travel thanks to Intellectual Property?

November 13, 2025
Last updated: January 21, 2026
4 min read
Annick Vandorpe
Annick Vandorpe
Manager, IP Value Creation and Strategy, Amadeus
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Many see Intellectual Property (IP), especially patents, as barriers. At Amadeus, we see it differently.


We call this ‘IP for Good’: the belief that IP should foster collaboration and drive progress for the entire industry. For us, IP isn’t about closing doors. It’s about clarity and trust, so new ideas can thrive. It’s an investment in bold thinking and open innovation, enabling collaboration with customers, partners, and even competitors to transform travel.


We believe IP should deliver real value. For airlines, agencies, corporations, and airports, this means access to innovation that is robust, reliable, and built for the long term. IP ensures systems and APIs are well-designed, protected, and ready for future use.


And because Amadeus has brilliant inventors, engineers, designers, and data scientists, we empower them to turn ideas into impact. Since its founding, Amadeus has obtained more than a thousand patents, and in 2024 alone, 368 Amadeus inventors submitted inventions for protection by the Amadeus IP Office. Their work fuels patents, publications, open-source contributions, and designs that move the travel ecosystem forward.


These patents anticipate future trends, helping us adapt our solutions and technologies for what’s next.

Patents as engines of innovation

Take the Visual Booking System patent (US9830561), filed in 2014 and granted in 2017. It describes a system using wearable or mobile devices (like smart glasses) to capture images, identify landmarks or text, infer destinations, and present travel offers.


This anticipated smart eyewear and visual search long before they became mainstream (like the Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses, or Google’s Gemini-powered headsets), inspiring improvements to our Flight Search Display APIs and powering future Augmented Reality (AR) devices.


Another example is the Amadeus Travel Storefront, currently in pilot and with a patent pending (Network Search System and Method). Integrated into organic and sponsored social media posts on platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok, it transforms inspiring moments into real travel plans and decisions. Storefront helps travellers explore the destination’s vibe, uncover hidden gems, and discover must-see tours, activities, and points of interest, providing a clear picture of the full trip experience.


These two patents reflect the shift to image-led, emotion-driven travel discovery and are a direct response to evolving consumer habits in digital environments. Patents signal future readiness, guiding R&D and product development toward emerging behaviours and technologies.


Our research teams also publish academic work to validate ideas and share knowledge, reinforcing scientific rigour and thought leadership. The latest examples include:


Recommender Systems for Airline Retailing
(2021)

Co-authored by Amadeus and Eurecom, this is a practical guide to AI-powered personalisation for airline retailing. It outlines six use cases across the traveller journey (from inspiration to in-trip) and shows how dynamic pricing and offer management can boost conversion and loyalty.


Choice Transformer
(2025)

An advanced AI model that predicts traveller choices more accurately, making shopping faster and more relevant, and allowing airlines to offer the right product at the right time. It improves mobile and conversational search and lays the foundation for smarter retailing with dynamic pricing and personalisation.

Building innovation on solid ground

Just as open source relies on copyright for clarity and collaboration, open innovation in travel depends on clear frameworks, and IP provides them. By documenting and protecting our ideas, we make them shareable and ready to build on with customers, partners, universities, and, even at times, competitors.


Amadeus maintains a comprehensive portfolio of IP assets that serve the industry:

  • Patents that outline visions for new ways of traveling and interacting with technology.
  • Designs and utility models that convert these visions into practical solutions.
  • Scientific publications that share our research openly and add to the global knowledge base, fostering academic and industry progress.
  • Defensive publications that ensure knowledge is publicly available to benefit the community.
  • Open-source contributions that accelerate collaboration across ecosystems.
  • Trade secrets that enable us to protect critical know-how while building trust with partners.

Transforming travel together

Innovation at Amadeus is built on trust and collaboration.


We see intellectual property not as a barrier, but as a catalyst for progress, giving partners access to secure, interoperable, and future-ready systems.


By protecting ideas responsibly and sharing them openly where possible, we enable confident innovation and accelerate industry evolution.


IP is not the end of innovation. It’s what makes it impactful and future-ready, creating long-term value for the entire travel ecosystem.

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