Aon has established a new underwriting platform which it says has the world's largest capacity for intellectual property (IP) liability, saying the importance of risk mitigation in this area has never been higher.

The new capacity, set up as a managing general agent, is targeted at businesses of all sizes in Australia and New Zealand, as well as in Europe, North America and parts of Asia, from SMEs to multinationals.

Global Head of IP Underwriting Solutions Ian Lewis recently joined Aon to develop a team and create a portfolio of innovative risk transfer solutions.

Aon first revealed a facility for IP infringement liability exposures in 2018, backed by leading Lloyd's syndicates and led by Mr Lewis for Tokio Marine Kiln.

Policies can include coverage for contractual indemnities to customers/licensees, and automatically includes lawsuits from competitors, patent assertion entities, non-practicing entities and “copyright trolls”.