CAD designs, including both 3D models and 2D plans, are protected by various forms of intellectual property (IP) laws. The protections range widely from trademarks and copyrights to inventions protected by patent laws, protected designs, and internationally agreed trade rules for IP rights (under the World Trade Organization’s TRIPS Agreement). However, the digital nature of CAD designs makes them easy to distribute, share, and transmit with or without the creator’s authorization.
Another source of IP infringement concern is that CAD designs, obtained by scanning protected physical objects or designing from scratch, could be used to generate physical replicas of these objects using 3D printing technology. 3D printing raises the risk of IP infringement as it allows for decentralized production, unlike traditional manufacturing, which often involves centralized counterfeit operations. Nowadays, 3D printers are quite affordable, with 3D printing services being relatively ubiquitous and accessible; as a result, it has become quite easy to create physical forms of the 3D models stored in CAD designs.
The ease of transferring, modifying, and replicating CAD designs in today’s digital environment necessitates a closer examination of CAD design intellectual property protections. This article discusses the various types of IP that can cover CAD designs. We also delve into the various digital solutions creators can use to secure their creations and send them to partners and team members. Lastly, we explore the steps you can take to safeguard your CAD design intellectual property within a collaborative environment.
Table of Contents
Intellectual Property in CAD Designs
Intellectual property refers to any original creation of a human’s mind. It can be anything from artistic, musical, or literary works to names, inventions, and images. Original CAD designs also fall within this definition of intellectual property; after all, they are created from scratch by designers, architects, and engineers. CAD design intellectual property covers original 2D drawings (plans, patterns, or lines) and 3D models.
There are several types of CAD design intellectual property protections, namely:
- Patents
- Copyrights
- Trade secrets
- Design rights
- Protections of geographical indications
- Trademarked designs
- Protections to layout designs of integrated circuits
Benefits and Risks Associated with CAD Design Intellectual Property
The following sections provide an in-depth discussion of the various types of CAD design intellectual property protections. They confer rights to the owner or licensee to use, modify, sell, import, and export products bearing the design or those whose shapes are depicted in the design. In this regard, ownership of CAD design intellectual property comes with monetary rewards, with the inverse also holding true. Creators who do not register their designs risk significant financial losses if their work is counterfeited. They may also lose more money should they choose to prosecute the counterfeiters, leading to even greater financial losses.
Legal Protections for CAD Designs
Legal protections of CAD design intellectual property are anchored in various laws and international treaties. These protections include:
1. Design Rights and Protections
Design rights and design protections apply to the United Kingdom and the European Union, respectively. These rights or protections provide exclusive rights to use a design to make, sell, import, export, or use the designs or products in which the designs have been incorporated. These rights safeguard your CAD designs from unauthorized use, providing critical protection for your intellectual property.
There are two types of design rights:
- Registered design rights (in the UK) or registered community designs (in the EU): These rights are afforded to registered designs. You are required to register your design to make it easier to prove that it legally belongs to you and when you designed it. In both the UK and EU, design registration lasts for a renewable period of 5 years up to a maximum of 25 years.
- Unregistered design rights (in the UK) or unregistered community designs (in the EU): These rights apply from the moment you disclose your designs to the public. You do not have to register the design or pay a fee. However, they are enforceable for a shorter period than registered design rights.
Additionally, you can register industrial designs in 97 countries by filing a single international application with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) via the Hague System for the International Registration of Industrial Designs. According to WIPO, an industrial design can comprise both 2D and 3D features; therefore, a registered industrial design offers CAD design intellectual property protection. The industrial design rights bar unauthorized parties from making, using, importing, or exporting products bearing or embodying a replica of the protected design.
2. Copyrights
Copyright protection covers, among others, creative artistic work (such as photographs and illustrations) and architectural works, provided they are original works of authorship. In the United States, copyright applies to the design of buildings embodied in drawings, architectural plans, or the building itself.
Canada’s copyright law protects artistic works such as drawings, maps, and plans, while France’s Intellectual Property Code considers works of drawing, architecture, plans, sketches, and 3D works copyrightable. In summary, copyright is a type of CAD design intellectual property that applies to 2D drawings and 3D models, of course, depending on the applicable laws in each jurisdiction.
3. Geographical Indication
A geographical indication (GI) is a type of IP intended to protect agricultural and industrial products, foodstuffs, wine and spirit drinks, and handicrafts that originate from a specific geographical location and have qualities or a reputation associated with that location. Depending on the jurisdiction, GI is also known as appellation of origin, protected designation of origin, or protected geographical indication.
The GI prevents third parties from using the names of products and crafts for similar products and crafts made outside the specified location. To enjoy GI protection, producers must first register their products, with the prerequisite for registration being universally agreed-upon product specifications. Typically, the geographical indication specifications contain the name of the GI, the category of the product, the description of the product and production method, the applicant’s information, and much more. But for this article, we will focus on the description of the product.
The applicant is required to present the technical description of the product. It is this description that will help distinguish this product from other products within the same category. Where applicable, they present information such as the shape, weight, size, type, physical or chemical properties, and more. In such instances, a CAD design or illustration can be used to represent the product’s shape or names of the products. However, GI will not apply to the CAD design but rather to the product it depicts.
4. Patents
Patents are a type of intellectual property that protects inventions. The invention can be a process or product that offers a novel approach to solving a problem or doing something. Generally, patents limit or exclude other parties from making, using, replicating, or selling the invention (without a license) for a specified period. In this regard, patents confer exclusive rights to the holder, which provide legal protection to the invention.
A national or regional patent organization grants these rights upon the completion of an application and review process. Depending on the type of invention, a patent application includes a set of high-quality drawings or images that illustrate one or more aspects of the invention. These drawings should show different views and angles of a product. A patent granted for this invention protects how the invention looks as well as its shape, configuration, and ornamentation. Therefore, a design patent protects the CAD design.
5. Protections to Layout Designs of Integrated Circuits
Layout designs or topographies of integrated circuits (IC) are a type of CAD design intellectual property intended to protect original ICs. The layout design or topography refers to any expression in 3D of the elements of some of or all the interconnections of an IC. It also relates to the 3D makeup/design prepared for an IC intended for fabrication. In this regard, the protection for the layout design of ICs safeguards their CAD designs and prevents others from using the protected designs.
6. Trade Secrets
Trade secrets protect confidential information that is commercially valuable (can be sold or licensed), is known by a few people, and has largely been kept a secret through a concerted effort by its holder. This category of IP protects information such as CAD drawings and designs, commercial information (e.g., distribution channels and advertising strategies), and manufacturing information. In this regard, trade secrets that cover 2D designs and 3D models help protect CAD design intellectual property.
7. Trademarked Designs
A trademark identifies your brand as well as your goods or services. In this regard, the term trademark refers to both trademarks (for goods) and service marks for marks. Generally, a trademark can be a word, phrase, design, symbol, or a combination of these elements that helps customers single out you or your products or services in a marketplace. It is worth pointing out that a trademark protects how the word, phrase, design, or symbol is used in relation to your products or services. It does not confer ownership of these elements.
There are several boxes you have to tick when applying for a trademark. Chief among them is the presentation of a clear drawing that depicts the trademark you want to register. The national or regional IP organization will then upload this drawing to a registry, enabling the public to access and view your registered trademark.
This drawing can be either a standard character (text-only) drawing (without a design, font, size, or color) or a special form drawing (that is stylized and features graphics, logos, or color). In most cases, applicants create the latter drawing using CAD software. If you provide a special form of the trademark for registration, the registered trademark will only protect the depiction contained in the CAD design.
Digital Protections for CAD Files
Digital protections enable you to limit access to or monitor your CAD designs and files. They include:
1. Digital Signatures
Software like AutoCAD enables you to attach a digital signature to a drawing. This signature helps identify the creator and indicates whether a drawing has been modified, as it is automatically removed if an unauthorized party modifies the drawing. It also stores information such as time stamps. It is worth pointing out that this digital signature is markedly different from the digitized signature you can manually insert in your CAD drawings. Instead, this digital signature is linked to a certificate issued by a certificate authority or a self-signed certificate.
The digital signature in AutoCAD serves two functions:
- The digital signature furnishes recipients of CAD drawings with reliable, encrypted information about the creator or originator of the drawings
- It verifies that a CAD drawing has not been modified since the creator attached a digital signature
2. Access Roles and Permissions
Some software applications use access roles and permissions to restrict certain functions. For instance, Dassault Systèmes’ 3DExperience platform supports various roles, including Owner, Administrator, Reader, Contributor, and Author/Leader. Within the context of the 3DExperience platform, a collaborative space refers to a storage area where you can save files and collaborate with other people with different responsibilities to produce and deliver content. The roles, therefore, provide varying degrees of access to the collaborative space based on the assigned permissions.
Owners can manage the membership of the collaborative space and create and edit content, while Administrators can only perform administrative functions like managing the collaborative space. Readers can only read content without evaluating, editing, or creating it. Conversely, Contributors can evaluate and read content without editing or creating it. Lastly, Authors can create, edit, read, and evaluate content as well as lock and unlock files. These permissions help protect CAD designs and 3D models from unauthorized modification, thus safeguarding IP rights.
You can also use third-party solutions like SealPath to protect your CAD design intellectual property via permissions and access roles. These solutions allow you to determine who can access your CAD designs. You can also assign or revoke permissions for viewing or editing. The solutions also enable you to limit actions such as copying and pasting or printing, safeguarding your CAD design intellectual property. You can also apply expiration dates to permissions.
3. Digital Watermarking
Digital watermarking, also known as steganographic identification, uses technology to embed unique, often invisible identifiers in digital files. It involves using digital technology and algorithms to embed a unique watermark/identifier that the human eye cannot see or perceive. Companies that provide this service use the embedded invisible identifier to track whether your protected CAD files have been shared online. In addition, these companies can monitor websites that have published these CAD files, enabling you to enforce copyright laws.
The digital watermarking companies can serve another crucial function: identifying the source of a data leak. By generating a unique identifier for each user’s copy of a CAD file, it becomes quite easy to pinpoint the party that disseminated the CAD design when it falls into the hands of unauthorized persons.
4. Version Control
Version control systems track changes and edits made to CAD designs over time, enabling teams to view the revision history, revert to older versions, and merge contributions and feedback. In addition, these systems enable you to create parallel versions of the design, allowing you to experiment with certain ideas without affecting the main version. By tracking the history of a CAD design, you can easily identify team members who made certain contributions. You can also easily tell if an unauthorized person accessed the design file.
Sharing CAD Designs Securely
Today, there are numerous technologies that can help you share CAD files securely while protecting the CAD design intellectual property. These solutions include:
1. Product Data Management (PDM) Systems
Product data management or PDM systems enable collaboration by helping organizations capture, manage, and transmit product and design data across distributed teams. They allow different team members to collaborate within the same design environment.
PDM systems guarantee that the 3D CAD models, 2D drawings, and documents are securely stored in a central repository and can be easily accessed by authorized persons. They capture file attributes like relationships between and among various designs and pieces of content and their associated history. This way, PDM systems track the version and revision history, eliminating manual processes.
2. Digital Thread
The digital thread connects various otherwise siloed systems throughout the product lifecycle, from conceptualization and design to manufacturing and servicing. It serves as a single source of data, allowing different players across the entire product lifecycle to access, analyze, evaluate, and interpret product data. This data is often contextualized based on the job role and responsibilities of the viewer.
The digital thread ensures that the different players access only what they are required and authorized to view. Put simply, the digital thread promotes efficiency and productivity. Moreover, it facilitates data accuracy (by eliminating manual data entry) and faster data exchange. To implement a digital thread, you have to use various solutions, including 3D CAD software, product lifecycle management (PLM) software, and an Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) platform. The IIoT platform integrates information from and across the various software systems, facilitating real-time data flow and synchronicity.
3. Digital Collaborative Workspaces
Dassault Systèmes’ 3DSpace is a component of the 3DExperience Platform that aids in collaborative design. It provides a digital workspace where teams can collaborate on different aspects of product design and development and project management. This collaborative space enables you to access and share standard content like templates and proprietary design content. These collaborative spaces let you collaborate with internal teams and external organizations. You can assign permissions based on your preferred criteria.
4. CAD File Protection Tools
You could also use third-party tools like SealPath. These tools protect CAD files by protecting the actions certain users can take. For instance, you can restrict the number of persons who can edit, copy and paste, or print CAD designs. This level of protection enables you to control what other parties can access, helping safeguard CAD design intellectual property.
Collaboration and IP Protection
Collaboration is an essential part of CAD projects. Not only does it help designers improve their designs, but it also promotes innovation by enabling new ideas and perspectives. Additionally, it may help fast-track the delivery of products. After all, two heads are better than one. In this regard, it is not uncommon for a company to share designs externally with other companies. But despite the promised benefits of such collaborative efforts, one concern lingers: the protection of your CAD design intellectual property.
Fortunately, there are a few ways companies can improve the protection of their CAD design IP and allied documents. They include:
1. Corporate Policies on Intellectual Property Compliance
Your company should come up with a corporate policy on how to ensure your operations comply with applicable IP laws. Your company should also take reasonable steps to protect its CAD design intellectual property. These measures should extend to partners as well. Within the context of collaboration, this initial intervention goes hand-in-hand with the second intervention below. This implies that these policies and guidelines can be included in contracts with partners and suppliers.
2. Contractual Provisions
In addition to including IP-related policies and guidelines in the contract, it is also advisable to add provisions that require partners to document the processes each IP-protected design or product goes through. Such provisions should mandate the secure storage of these designs and the documentation of any data transfer. These contractual provisions go a long way in protecting the CAD design intellectual property.
3. Partner Notification
You should also strive to notify partners and suppliers that you comply with the dictates of intellectual property rights. This notification should also include expectations for them to do so, too. Such a notification should specify penalties or sanctions for non-compliance, including but not limited to legal action.
4. IP Training and Awareness
IP training imparts knowledge about IP laws to employees and partners. It also teaches them about their responsibilities when it comes to ensuring compliance and safeguarding CAD design intellectual property.
5. Licensing and Permissions
Lastly, you can provide, in writing, licenses and permissions to your protected CAD designs. These permissions can confer partners rights to perform certain actions, such as editing, copying, printing, and transmitting. However, the licenses and permissions should also include penalties and sanctions to discourage or prevent misuse.
Conclusion
Human creations can be a source of competitive advantages. They also provide monetary rewards for individuals and companies that monetize them either partly or wholly. These benefits, coupled with the fact that the current digital ecosystem makes it easy to send and copy digital files like CAD designs, makes protecting your creations paramount. The first step is identifying the ideal IP type to protect your creation; there are several categories in that regard: copyright, patents, trade secrets, trademarks, geographical indications, layout design of integrated circuits, and design rights.
Once you have registered your IP, you can use digital protections like access control, digital signatures, digital watermarks, and version control to limit access to or monitor your CAD files. You can also use collaboration tools to securely share your protected files, safeguarding your CAD design intellectual property. Lastly, you can use certain strategies, e.g., training and awareness, contractual provisions, licensing, and corporate policies, to improve the protection of CAD design IP.
