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IP Protection: The 8-Layer Playbook for Deep Tech and Hardware Teams (2026) | CADChain | CAD DRM & IP

TL;DR: how to protect intellectual property

Protect intellectual property by stacking eight layers: register what can be registered, sign contracts that make the company the owner, lock down files technically, train and offboard people properly, keep dated evidence of what you created, monitor for copies, have an enforcement plan ready, and budget for insurance and funding. No single layer is enough. Together they make theft hard, copying risky and your rights provable in court.

This playbook is for deep tech, hardware and engineering teams. It covers what to do at each company stage, how to share CAD files with suppliers and investors, how to work with factories abroad, how to keep AI tools from leaking your know-how, and what each layer costs in 2026.

If you need the legal background first, start with our intellectual property law guide (what each right is and how the treaties work) or our trade secrets guide (how to keep confidential know-how protected). This guide is the practical side: what to actually do, in what order, and for how much. For what each right does and does not cover, read our guide to intellectual property rights.

Key takeaways

Most IP is lost through insiders, suppliers and plain copying, not hackers. 48% of breaches now involve a third party (Verizon DBIR, 2026).
Timing kills more patents than competitors do. In Europe, any public disclosure before filing destroys novelty; there is no general grace period.
Contracts decide who owns the IP. Use present-tense "hereby assign" wording for founders, staff and freelancers, and NNN agreements for factories in China.
Technical controls matter legally too: trade secrets are only protected if you took "reasonable steps" to keep them secret, and you must be able to prove those steps.
Protection is affordable: an EU trade mark costs €850, an EU design €350, a Benelux i-DEPOT €37, and a US provisional patent from $65.

What is IP protection?

IP protection is the combination of legal rights, contracts, technical controls and internal processes that a company uses to stop others from copying, using or claiming its inventions, designs, software, brand and know-how without permission, and to prove and enforce its rights when that happens.

Registration alone is not protection. A patent is useless if the inventor never assigned it to the company, a trade secret disappears the day a supplier publishes it, and a trade mark cannot stop a squatter in a country where you never filed. Real protection is layered, and each layer covers a gap in the others.

For engineering companies, most of the value sits in design data: CAD models, drawings, simulation files, firmware and process parameters. That is why this guide spends more time on files, suppliers and people than generic legal guides do. For the basics of securing design files, see CAD file protection basics.

The 8 layers of IP protection

Register patents, trade marks and designs before you disclose.
Contract ownership and confidentiality with everyone who touches your IP.
Secure files with access control, encryption, DRM and watermarks.
Train and offboard people, including clear rules for AI tools.
Record evidence of what you created and when.
Monitor registers, marketplaces and customs for copies.
Enforce fast with a ready-made response plan.
Insure and fund protection before you need it.

Layer	Protects against	Typical cost (2026)	When
1. Register	Copying of inventions, brands and product looks	€37 to €10k+ per right	Before any public disclosure
2. Contract	Ownership gaps, misuse by partners	Hours plus legal review	Before work or sharing starts
3. Secure	Leaks of files and data	Low to medium	Before files leave your systems
4. People	Insider leaks, careless sharing, AI tools	Hours	Day one, and at exit
5. Evidence	Disputes over who created what, and when	€0 to €37+	Every version
6. Monitor	Copies you don't know about	€0 to low	Continuously
7. Enforce	Ongoing infringement and damage	€0 to €1M+	Within days of discovery
8. Insure and fund	Litigation costs you can't carry	Varies	Before a dispute

Step 0: know what you are protecting

You cannot protect what you have not listed. Before choosing any measure, build a simple IP asset register: a spreadsheet with one row per asset and columns for what it is, who owns it legally, who created it, where it is stored, who has access, and which layers already cover it. For what a typical register contains and how to value the assets on it, see our guide to intellectual property as a business asset.

Inventions: new mechanisms, processes, materials, algorithms.
Design data: CAD models, assemblies, drawings, BOMs, tolerances, simulation results.
Code and models: firmware, software, ML model weights, training data.
Know-how: process parameters, supplier lists, test methods, failure data.
Brand: company and product names, logos, domains.

Then tier the list. Your crown jewels, the few assets that would hurt most if a competitor had them, get every layer. Everything else gets the basics. This keeps cost and friction under control, and it gives you the list a court will ask for: in trade-secret cases, claims are regularly dismissed because the owner could not say precisely what the secret was.

Layer 1: register what can be registered

Registered rights give you a monopoly you can enforce against anyone, even someone who developed the same thing independently. Choose the right for the asset:

Patents for technical inventions that competitors could see or reverse-engineer from your product.
Trade marks for names and logos. Register before launch, and before your first trade fair abroad.
Registered designs for the look of a product. Cheap, fast, and very effective against copies.
Trade secrets (no registration) for what competitors cannot see: process parameters, recipes, model weights. Our trade secrets guide explains when secrecy beats a patent.

Timing: file before you talk

Europe requires absolute novelty. A conference talk, a blog post, a crowdfunding page or an unprotected pitch before your filing date can make your own invention unpatentable in Europe. The US gives inventors a 12-month grace period for their own disclosures, but relying on it costs you Europe. The safe rule: file first (a priority filing or a US provisional is enough), then talk. After the first filing you have 12 months of priority to extend protection abroad.

For EU-wide coverage, the Unitary Patent costs less than €5,000 in renewal fees over its first 10 years, according to the EPO, far less than validating a classic European patent country by country. The full map of rights, treaties and filing routes is in our overview of IP laws by country.

Copyright and design rights in CAD files

CAD models and drawings are protected by copyright automatically, but copyright protects the file, not the idea or the function of the part. A competitor who measures your product and remodels it from scratch may not infringe your copyright. A registered design protects the appearance itself, and the EU design reform (Regulation 2024/2822) extends design protection to 3D-printing files that reproduce a registered design. For a fuller explanation of who owns a design file, see CAD file ownership and legal proof.

Layer 2: contracts that make the company the owner

The most expensive IP problems in due diligence are not stolen secrets. They are gaps in ownership: a co-founder who left without signing over their code, a freelancer who still owns the enclosure design, a university that claims part of the invention.

Founders: sign an IP assignment to the company at incorporation, covering work done before it existed.
Employees: employment contracts with an IP clause and confidentiality. Check local rules on inventor compensation (for example in Germany and the Netherlands).
Freelancers and agencies: they usually own what they create unless they sign an assignment. Use present-tense wording: "hereby assigns", not "agrees to assign".
Suppliers and contract manufacturers: state who owns tooling and moulds, separate background IP (what each side brings) from foreground IP (what is created together), and require return or destruction of files at the end.

Templates and pitfalls for staff are covered in employee IP agreements for CAD teams.

Is an NDA enough to protect my idea?

No. An NDA only helps if you can prove a breach, find the party and enforce the contract where they are. It does not stop use of your idea by someone who never signed, and it does not stop a manufacturer from using what it learned to make its own product. Treat an NDA as one layer and pair it with registration, need-to-know sharing and technical controls. More on this in the limits of NDAs for CAD protection.

Do investors sign NDAs?

Most venture investors will not sign NDAs for a first meeting. They see too many similar companies and cannot take on the liability. Don't let that stop you; change what you share instead. Pitch the problem, the results and the team, not the recipe. Share technical detail in stages, and only in a data room with per-viewer watermarks and access logs once due diligence starts.

Layer 3: technical protection for files and data

Technical controls stop leaks from happening and produce the evidence you need when they do. They also carry legal weight. Under the EU Trade Secrets Directive, information only counts as a trade secret if it was subject to "reasonable steps" to keep it secret, and it is up to you to prove those steps.

Access control: least privilege in PDM/PLM, separate roles for internal and external users, and quarterly access reviews.
Encryption: for files at rest, in transit and on laptops. Lost devices then stop being leaks.
CAD DRM: keeps protection on the file itself after it leaves your systems, with view-only or time-limited access, remote revocation and a log of every open. See the complete guide to CAD DRM.
Watermarking: a unique visible or hidden mark per recipient makes a leaked file traceable to its source. See digital watermarking of CAD geometry.
Endpoint and DLP rules: block or alert on USB copies, personal cloud uploads and mass downloads. See preventing CAD theft via USB drives.

Share less: simplified geometry instead of native files

Most recipients do not need your parametric model. A quoting supplier needs outer geometry and tolerances; a customer needs an envelope for integration. Before sending a file:

Export a neutral format such as STEP. It drops the feature tree and design intent.
Defeature or simplify: remove internal details, or send an outer envelope only.
Exclude hidden and suppressed bodies, which can be carried into STEP, IGES and other exports.
Strip metadata: part names, custom properties, author fields and file paths.
Split the design across suppliers so no single one sees the full assembly.

For a step-by-step workflow, read how to share CAD files securely and protecting neutral CAD formats.

Layer 4: people, training and offboarding

People are the main way IP leaves a company. Research by Code42 found a 37% chance a company loses IP when an employee quits, and Cyberhaven measured an 83% rise in data exfiltration in the two weeks before employees hand in their notice.

Onboarding: explain what is confidential, how to mark it and where it may be stored. Ask new hires to confirm they brought no IP from previous employers.
Need-to-know: not every engineer needs every assembly.
Notice periods: review access as soon as someone resigns, and watch for unusual downloads.
Exit: revoke all access the same day, collect devices, remind the person of their obligations in writing and keep the logs.

Two recent cases show why. A former Google engineer was convicted in January 2026 of stealing AI chip secrets after uploading more than 2,000 pages to a personal cloud account while secretly running his own start-up. And Tesla sued a former Optimus engineer in 2025, alleging he copied robot-hand files to personal phones before founding a rival that was incorporated within a week of his departure; the case settled in June 2026. For a full checklist, read how to prevent IP theft by former employees.

Layer 5: evidence of creation and ownership

Many IP disputes come down to one question: who had it first? Dated, tamper-proof records answer it. They help prove copyright authorship, prior use, inventorship and the existence of a trade secret, without disclosing anything.

Qualified electronic timestamps: under the EU eIDAS Regulation (Art. 41), a qualified timestamp is presumed accurate as to date and time and to the integrity of the data it is bound to, in every EU country.
Ledgers and blockchain: eIDAS 2 adds electronic ledgers. Data in a qualified ledger enjoys a presumption of accurate chronological order and integrity (Regulation (EU) 2024/1183, Art. 45k).
i-DEPOT: the Benelux office records a dated, sealed copy of your file as proof of existence for €37 online for 5 years.
Version history: PDM revisions and git commits are useful, but their timestamps come from your own machines. Anchor them to an independent timestamp to make them hard evidence.

Courts are accepting this kind of evidence. In March 2025 a Marseille court relied on blockchain-anchored fashion sketches, verified by a bailiff, when it ruled for AZ Factory in a copyright case; China's Hangzhou Internet Court accepted blockchain evidence as early as 2018. More in blockchain evidence in IP litigation and audit trails in IP litigation.

Layer 6: monitor for copies

You cannot enforce what you do not see. EUIPO and OECD research found that around 40% of EU SMEs do not monitor the market for counterfeits, and that SMEs whose IP is infringed have a 34% lower chance of staying in business. Monitoring costs little:

Trade marks and designs: free searches in EUIPO's TMview and DesignView, and the WIPO Global Brand Database. Set alerts for names close to yours.
Patents: saved searches and alerts in Espacenet and the European Patent Register for competitors and keywords.
Marketplaces: reverse image searches on Amazon, AliExpress, Alibaba and Temu. Amazon Brand Registry gives you takedown tools, but it requires a registered trade mark.
Customs: an EU application for action is free and asks customs in every member state to detain suspected fakes. In the US, recording a trade mark with CBP costs $190 per class.
Your own files: DRM and watermark logs show where files are opened, which is often the first sign of a leak.

Layer 7: enforce fast

Speed matters. Evidence disappears, copies spread, and some court measures are only available if you act quickly. The first 72 hours after you discover a leak or a copy decide most of what you can do later.

Contain (hours 0 to 4): revoke access and shared links, disable accounts and keys, pause file transfers to the party involved.
Preserve (hours 4 to 24): export logs and audit trails, image devices, keep emails, and write down who knew what and when.
Assess (hours 24 to 48): what leaked, to whom and how much; which rights and contracts apply. Call your IP lawyer.
Act (hours 48 to 72): cease-and-desist letter, marketplace takedown, customs notice or court measures.

Fast enforcement works. Dutch bike maker KNAAP got an ex parte injunction against a copied frame in about 8 days on the strength of a registered EU design, and the Hague court later upheld it. Smart-ring maker Oura used its patents to obtain US import exclusion orders against rivals in 2025, turning two of them into licensees.

Litigation is the last resort and it is costly. Since January 2026 the fixed fee for an infringement action at Europe's Unified Patent Court is €14,600, with SMEs paying 50%. In the US, the AIPLA 2025 survey puts the median cost of a patent case with $1 to 10 million at risk at about $1 million through trial. Legal steps after a CAD theft are covered in what to do when CAD files are stolen.

Layer 8: insurance and funding

Two things make protection affordable for a small company: subsidies before you file, and insurance before you need to sue or defend.

EUIPO SME Fund 2026: reimburses part of IP costs for EU SMEs, running from 2 February to 4 December 2026. As of October 2026, the patent voucher (up to €3,500) is still open, while the IP Scan and trade mark and design vouchers have run out of funds for this year. Apply before you pay, because costs incurred before the voucher are not eligible.
Netherlands: the free IP Smart Scan from the Netherlands Patent Office gives Dutch tech companies with 5 to 250 employees an IP action plan.
IP insurance: covers the cost of enforcing your rights, defending against claims, or both. UK government guidance gives an example of £100,000 of patent cover for around £1,500. It must be bought before a dispute starts.

IP protection at every company stage

The risks change as you grow, so the layers you rely on should change too.

Ideation

Keep a dated invention log and timestamp key files.
Sign a founder IP assignment.
No public talks, posts or crowdfunding before filing.

Prototyping

File the first patent application, or a design registration for the look.
Get IP assignments from every freelancer and agency.
Set up access control in your CAD and PDM tools.

Supplier sharing

Sign an NDA (or an NNN in China) before the request for quotation.
Send simplified STEP files, not native models.
Split parts across suppliers and agree tooling ownership in writing.

Fundraising

Pitch what the product does, not how it works.
Use a logged, watermarked data room for due diligence.
Clean up the chain of title before investors ask for it.

Launch

Register the trade mark before launch in every key market.
Register designs for the product's look.
Set up marketplace and customs monitoring.

Exit or licensing

Run an IP audit and fix ownership gaps.
Check open-source and inherited licences.
Only give warranties you can back with records.

How to protect IP when manufacturing in China

Manufacturing abroad is where hardware companies are most exposed, because the factory needs your detailed design data to build your product. The main risk is usually not theft by an outsider but that the manufacturer uses what it learned to make and sell its own version.

Register in China first. China is first-to-file: whoever files a trade mark first owns it, and an EU registration gives no protection there (China IP SME Helpdesk). File the Chinese-character version of your brand too. Within weeks of DeepSeek's rise in 2025, China's IP office had to reject 63 bad-faith applications for its name.
Use an NNN agreement, not just an NDA. Non-disclosure, non-use and non-circumvention, written in Chinese, governed by Chinese law, enforceable in a Chinese court, with realistic liquidated damages.
Own the tooling. State in writing that moulds and fixtures are yours, and where they are kept.
Split production. Spread critical parts across suppliers so no one factory can build the whole product.
Control the files. Send only what each supplier needs, with DRM and per-supplier watermarks.

The same logic applies in Vietnam, India and other manufacturing hubs. Read CAD security for offshore manufacturing and securing CAD data in the supply chain for supplier workflows.

How to protect IP in AI workflows

AI tools are a new and fast-growing leak channel. Cyberhaven measured a 485% rise in corporate data pasted into AI tools in one year, with more than a quarter of it sensitive. Samsung saw three leaks of source code and meeting notes within about 20 days of allowing ChatGPT in 2023, and then restricted generative AI on company devices.

Write an AI use policy that says which data classes may never go into external tools: native CAD, unreleased designs, source code, customer data.
Provide an approved tool on an enterprise plan that does not train on your data. Bans without an alternative push people to personal accounts.
Check CAD and simulation add-ons with AI features: find out where they send data.
Record human contributions. Purely AI-generated output is not protected by copyright in the US, and patents need a human inventor. Keep notes of who designed what.
Protect your models. Weights and training data are trade secrets. Meta's LLaMA weights leaked within about a week of limited release in 2023; Mistral could trace its 2024 leak because the model given to an early-access customer was watermarked.

For design-specific AI questions, see generative AI and CAD IP.

IP protection by asset type

Asset	Main legal right	Key technical layer	Watch out for
Product invention	Patent	Need-to-know access until filed	Disclosing before filing
Product look	Registered design	Watermarked renders	Copies launched before you register
CAD models and drawings	Copyright, trade secret	DRM, simplified exports, logs	Native files sent to suppliers
Firmware and software	Copyright, trade secret	Repository access control, secret scanning	Public repos, open-source licence conflicts
ML models and data	Trade secret	Encrypted storage, per-recipient watermarks	Downloadable weights
Process know-how	Trade secret	Split knowledge, access logs	Departing staff, factories
Brand	Trade mark	Marketplace monitoring	Squatters in China

What does IP protection cost?

Official fees are lower than most founders expect. Attorney fees usually cost more than the filing itself, especially for patents.

Item	Official cost (2026)	Notes
EU trade mark	€850 for 1 class	€50 for the 2nd class, €150 each from the 3rd; valid 10 years
Benelux trade mark	€244 for 1 class	Covers the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg
Registered EU design	€350 for the first design	€125 per extra design in the same filing; up to 25 years
i-DEPOT (Benelux)	€37 online	Dated proof of existence for 5 years; not an IP right
US provisional patent	$65 / $130 / $325	Micro / small / large entity; holds your priority date for 12 months
US copyright registration	$45 / $65	Single / standard application
European patent (EPO)	Search €1,595, examination €2,010	Plus filing, designation and grant fees; attorney fees extra
Unitary Patent renewals	Under €5,000 for 10 years	One renewal fee for 18 EU countries
UPC infringement action	€14,600 fixed fee	SMEs pay 50%; value-based fees on top
IP insurance	About £1,500 for £100k cover (UK example)	Buy before a dispute

Technical layers usually cost less than one patent filing, and they protect every file, not just one invention. For the business case, see the true cost of CAD IP theft for SMEs.

EU and Netherlands vs US: what changes in your playbook

Topic	EU / Netherlands	United States
Patent grace period	None in general; disclose only after filing	12 months for the inventor's own disclosures
Who gets the patent	First to file	First inventor to file
Trade secret law	Trade Secrets Directive (Dutch Wbb): reasonable steps	DTSA and state law: reasonable measures
Patent court	Unified Patent Court or national courts	Federal district courts and the ITC
Copyright registration	Not possible or needed	Needed before suing over a US work
Proof of creation	i-DEPOT, qualified eIDAS timestamps	Registration, records, independent timestamps
SME support	EUIPO SME Fund, NL IP Smart Scan	Reduced USPTO fees for small and micro entities

If you sell in both markets, plan for the stricter rule: file before any disclosure, and keep records that work in both systems.

IP protection statistics (2026)

Statistic	Figure	Source
Chance a company loses IP when an employee leaves	37%	Code42, 2022
Rise in data exfiltration in the 2 weeks before resignation	+83%	Cyberhaven
Breaches involving a third party	48%	Verizon DBIR, 2026
Manufacturing breaches driven by espionage	20% (was 3%)	Verizon DBIR, 2025
Data theft as top impact of attacks on manufacturers	40%	IBM X-Force, 2026
Average global cost of a data breach	$4.99M	IBM, 2026
Lower survival rate for SMEs whose IP is infringed	34%	EUIPO and OECD
Global trade in counterfeit goods	$467bn	OECD and EUIPO, 2025
Fake items detained in the EU in 2024	112M, worth €3.8bn	European Commission and EUIPO

Want to see what these risks look like on the shop floor? Read IP theft in manufacturing and how to prevent employee CAD leaks.

Real cases: what worked and what failed

Case	What happened	Lesson
KNAAP Bikes (Netherlands, 2023 to 2024)	Ex parte injunction against a copied fatbike frame in about 8 days, based on a registered EU design	A €350 design registration can stop copies fast
Oura v. Ultrahuman and RingConn (US ITC, 2025)	Import exclusion orders; two rivals took licences	Patents plus border measures stop imported copies
Google AI chip secrets (US, 2026)	Ex-engineer convicted after uploading 2,000+ pages to a personal cloud	Monitor uploads and outside affiliations
Tesla v. Proception (US, 2025 to 2026)	Alleged copying of robot-hand files to phones; settled	Exit procedures and device logs create leverage
Samsung and ChatGPT (2023)	Three leaks within about 20 days of allowing the tool	Put AI policy and controls in place before rollout
Toyota T-Connect (2022)	Subcontractor exposed source code and a key on GitHub for about 5 years	Supplier repositories are your attack surface
ASML and XTAL	An $845M US judgment proved impossible to collect	Prevention beats litigation

More hardware-specific stories are in competitor espionage and CAD theft.

10 common IP protection mistakes

Talking, posting or crowdfunding before filing.
No IP assignment from co-founders and freelancers.
"Agree to assign" wording instead of "hereby assign".
Sending native CAD files when a simplified STEP would do.
Relying on an NDA alone, especially with factories in China.
Launching or exhibiting abroad before registering the trade mark there.
No access review when people resign.
Letting staff use AI tools with no policy or approved alternative.
No dated records of what you created and when.
Never checking marketplaces or registers for copies.

How CADChain helps engineering teams protect their IP

Three of the eight layers depend on controlling and recording design files: technical protection, evidence and monitoring. That is what we built CADChain for.

BORIS by CADChain works inside your CAD software. It gives every design version a blockchain-timestamped certificate of ownership, so you have dated proof of what you created without disclosing it. It also lets you share files with suppliers and partners under digital rights management, with access you can limit and revoke and a log of who opened what.

👉 See how BORIS protects your CAD designs

For a day-to-day operational checklist, see our playbook for securing startup operations.

Conclusion

Protecting intellectual property is not one decision but a set of habits. Know what your crown jewels are. File before you talk. Make sure the company owns what its people create. Share the minimum, under control, and keep the logs. Record what you created and when. Watch for copies, and have a plan ready for the day you find one. Each layer is cheap on its own, and together they turn your IP from something you hope is safe into something you can prove and defend.

This guide is general information, not legal advice. Talk to a patent attorney or IP lawyer in your jurisdiction before making decisions about specific inventions, contracts or disputes.

FAQ: IP protection

How do I protect my intellectual property?

Combine eight layers: register patents, trade marks and designs; sign ownership and confidentiality contracts; secure files technically; train and offboard staff; keep dated evidence; monitor for copies; enforce quickly; and insure or subsidise the costs.

What are the 4 main ways to protect intellectual property?

Patents for inventions, trade marks for brands, copyright for creative works and code, and trade secrets for confidential know-how. Registered designs are a fifth, often overlooked, right for the look of a product.

How can I protect an idea without a patent?

Keep it confidential as a trade secret, share it only under NDA and on a need-to-know basis, and keep dated evidence such as an i-DEPOT or qualified timestamp. Note that an idea alone cannot be patented; only a concrete technical invention can.

Should I file a patent before pitching to investors?

Yes, if the pitch would reveal how the invention works. In Europe any disclosure before filing can destroy novelty. A priority filing or US provisional is enough to secure your date.

How do I protect CAD files shared with suppliers?

Send simplified or neutral files instead of native models, remove hidden bodies and metadata, sign an NDA or NNN first, and use DRM and watermarks so access can be limited, logged and revoked.

What is an NNN agreement?

A non-disclosure, non-use and non-circumvention agreement, mainly used with Chinese manufacturers. Unlike a standard NDA, it also stops the factory from using your design itself or going around you to your customers.

How do I prove I created something first?

Use independent, dated records: a qualified electronic timestamp, a blockchain anchor, an i-DEPOT in the Benelux, or a registration. Version history helps, but anchor it to an independent timestamp.

Is it safe to put confidential data into ChatGPT?

Not on personal or free accounts. Use an approved enterprise tool that does not train on your data, and never paste native CAD, source code or unreleased designs into an unapproved tool.

How much does it cost to protect intellectual property?

From €37 for an i-DEPOT and €350 for an EU design to €850 for an EU trade mark and several thousand euros for a European patent, plus attorney fees. Technical controls usually cost less than one patent.

What should I do if someone steals my IP?

Contain the leak, preserve evidence, assess what was taken and which rights apply, then act within days: a cease-and-desist letter, takedown, customs action or court measures. Call an IP lawyer early.

Is IP insurance worth it for a startup?

It can be, if a dispute would threaten the company. Enforcement and defence cover must be bought before a dispute starts; UK guidance cites about £1,500 a year for £100,000 of patent cover.

Are there grants for SME IP costs in the EU?

Yes. The EUIPO SME Fund reimburses part of the cost of trade marks, designs and patents, and Dutch tech companies can get a free IP Smart Scan. Check which vouchers are still open before you file.

IP protection glossary

Term	Meaning
Absolute novelty	The European rule that any public disclosure before filing destroys patentability
Priority date	The date of your first filing; filings abroad within 12 months keep that date
Chain of title	The documents proving the company owns its IP
NNN agreement	Non-disclosure, non-use and non-circumvention contract used with manufacturers
CAD DRM	Digital rights management that keeps access rules on a design file wherever it goes
Defeaturing	Removing internal details from a CAD model before sharing it
i-DEPOT	Benelux proof-of-existence filing for a dated, sealed copy of your work
Qualified timestamp	An eIDAS timestamp from a qualified provider, presumed accurate across the EU
Application for action	A free request asking EU customs to detain suspected infringing goods
Ex parte injunction	A court order granted without hearing the other side, used when speed matters

Violetta Bonenkamp, CADChain co-founder

2026-10-11 12:30 IP Guides