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Research Rap: Product IP Risk - Fact or Fiction?
March 27, 2008
A quick peek into some research on ... protecting product IP, in combination with news about military espionage to steal sensitive engineering data, points out the importance of protecting IP, trade, and military secrets. Although the stakes are higher when considering national security, the example clearly shows the ability for individuals across industries to compromise sensitive engineering data to share with others. Whether this is an issue of national security or a matter of protecting corporate knowledge, it is an issue that is getting a lot of attention of late. Particularly as companies move to global design and manufacturing models.
The Need to Protect IP
Recent research into planned technology adoption in product innovation, product development, and engineering shows that the highest growth area in PLM-related technology adoption - by far - is the adoption of digital rights management (DRM). This follows past research into Protecting Product IP and Global Design that indicate that protecting product IP is a significant concern in today's global businesses. A linked article quotes Ken Wainstein, the assistant attorney general for National Security, who references a "Defense Department report from 2006 noting a 43% increase in the number of suspicious foreign contacts reported by American defense firms -- many of which were presumably foreign operatives probing for protected military information."
Is DRM the Right Answer?
The research shows the demand for digital rights management (DRM) and the IP protection pressures leading to it. It does not indicate that DRM is the answer to these problems. Some forms of "IP friendly collaboration" such as sharing limited design information with partners or sharing degraded geometric accuracy are also approaches being adopted by leading firms. To be sure, even the Best-in-Class are adopting PLM (the Product Innovation Agenda 2010 benchmarks indicate of 200% growth over the next 2 years). The IP problem is hyped right now, and may not be as big a problem as some could imagine. But it is a problem, and a significant one for many companies. Companies like Adobe are partnering up with leading PLM/CAD players like Siemens, Dassault Systems, and others in order to protect design IP. These companies, along with Autodesk among others, also offer their own methods to share designs in safer, less precise formats. A host of visualization companies offer similar capabilities as well. Not to mention the fact that PLM, in an of itself, is way to protect IP - at least before it is shared "out in the wild" beyond the safety of the firewall (via e-mail, FTP, drives, etc.)
Is the Threat Real?
Some will easily dismiss the IP risk. After all, not everybody is guarding national security secrets. But wherever there is a financial gain to be garnered by someone taking a questionably moral shortcut, someone will always be willing to cross the line. If people are willing to sell military secrets related to the "space shuttle, C-17 military transport plane, and the Delta IV rocket" then I can imagine someone would be willing to trade their conscience and sell the IP behind an innovative industrial product or hot design.
So that was a quick peek into some recent research, I hope you found it interesting. So product IP is really at risk according to recent research and news coverage. Do you see it differently? Let us know what it looks like from your perspective.
Posted by Jim Brown on March 27, 2008 | Comments (0)
