Revolution in IP management

[Arthur Hanson]

There is a massive amount of IP in the semi industry that has multiple uses. The integration of Mems with processing and memory is but one area where this will be seen on a large scale. When it comes to shrinking everything, the semi industry is the clear leader. The materials, material processing and handling, fabrication, test and packaging all offer a wealth of opportunities to shrink and improve many of the processes and devices around us, as well as create entirely new products. This has the power to change the semi industry itself. IP management should become an integral part of any project from day one. To limit IP to just one industry is a tragic waste of resources when the semi industry expends more resources at a vastly accelerated rate compared to almost any other industry. We have seen just what a fraction of the semi IP has had in fields from biology, manufacturing, transportation and numerous other fields. This will not change until the IP manager becomes an integral part of the semi development process from start to finish. IP management will become a field in itself in creating opportunities and entirely new business lines that normally even would not have been considered. Much of what is transferred has been as an after thought and has still had significant impact.

It is past time to start creating a formal IP management process that becomes a standard part of any project start to finish. In many cases this will allow additional resources to be gathered and applied to projects allowing a snow ball effect speeding up the acquisition of knowledge and its application. This will not only be a push process, but one that also pulls in IP to speed and improve projects. The ways IP can be leveraged and monetized are only limited by the team of people involved and the diversity of their skill set. Entire ecosystems will be built around this concept and SemiWiki is just one of the points to start from. I see the day when the IP manager is a critical part of the team, important and as critical to success as any other team member and entire ecosystems devoted to every facet of IP management are the norm.

Comments and Thoughts actively solicited and wanted

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[barun]

Hi Arthur,

I have listed some areas which an IP manager needs to do, please feel free to add/ modify it

1. Create the feature list, performance target (area, power, SnR ratio etc) for IP. Customer analysis (what customer expects from the IP for their future product) and competitive analysis (what competitors are offerings and where is the gap) are key parts of this
2. Formulating the skill requirement and timeline required to make the IP
3. Building the required ecosystem for the IP. It includes developing partnership with vendors of compatible IP (to ensure the IP works fine in the end product), working with foundries and test houses manufacture, qualify and certify the IP
4. Identifying patentable opportunity in the IP design and driving the patent filing
5. Creating an infrastructure for ensuring quality and completeness of the IP package (actual design, verification environment, integration document, design and verification document etc)
6. Creating an evaluation environment including evaluation board, application software, legal documents (evaluation agreement, license agreement) etc
7. Promoting the IP in different channels like social media, conferences etc
8. Building the sales channel including direct sales person, sales representative
9. Building AE team for pre-sales and post sales support for IP

Regards,
Barun

 

[Arthur Hanson]

Barun, Your description is good for the basic IP manager in basic semis, but when it comes to fabrication processes and mems there is a need to first look for IP that may be suitable and already out there and can be scaled down or adapted to the process. If there is no usable IP out there, then the IP manager must look at uses in other industries to market, license or use cooperative development project. Also the IP manager must look to other products for the IP being developed. In short the IP manager must take a broad view or aquiring and overall distribution of IP and not just in the semi sector. The adaption process can go both ways, with semi IP having valuable and profitable uses in other industries that may not even realize it.