Intellectual property protection

Abstract

With the growth of the knowledge-based economy, intellectual property right (IPR) is recognized as a key factor to develop and protect strategic competitiveness and innovation of an enterprise. The increasing degree of collaboration in global relationships, ubiquitous digital communication techniques as well as tough competition has lead to an increasing importance of intellectual property protection (IPP) for enterprises. Since the law as well as ethical principles are not always adhered to, there are increasingly activities outside legal understanding. This situation is exacerbated in the context of rising crime through the misuse of modern ICT technologies ("Cyber Crime") and now employs extensively state authorities. Piracy, counterfeits and unwanted know-how drain pose a significant problem for each market leader. Intellectual property is stored in product data too. Especially modern parametric and feature-based 3D-CAD systems have been enhanced towards acquiring, representing, processing and distributing knowledge to support knowledge-based engineering (KBE) within virtual product creation. However, it is very easy to exchange huge amounts of product data within a virtual enterprise that comprises an enterprise with its supplier network. There is an enormous threat that intellectual property could fall into the wrong hands and badly jeopardize the existence of the related company. This chapter contains an analysis of this conflict area, a picture of the legal framework, a discussion on the need for action in supply chain networks and attempts by research and development as well as best practices in industry for various aspects of IPP in the context of concurrent engineering (CE).