Developing a framework for securing intellectual property of replacement-parts within additive manufacturing supply chains

Project aim

To support confidence in strategic decision-making for securing intellectual property rights within manufacturing and service supply chains that use additive manufacturing technologies for producing and servicing high-value replacement parts.

Project background

It is widely known that intellectual property is traded and utilised across manufacturing supply chains. However, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), there are significant issues that exist in relation to illicit IP usage, particularly within the area of additive manufacturing which, according to Gartner’s research, predicted losses of over $100bn in 2018 as a direct result.
This has stimulated the interest of scholars and practitioners as they explore the evidence to understand the strategic techniques organisations employ to secure their IP rights across the additive manufacturing supply chains.
In addition, it has been found that limited research currently exists on securing IP for replacement parts within this supply chain and so, this project will also use multidisciplinary explorative and mixed-method approaches to develop a framework that may, in turn, address such issues.