Re: Offshore firmware management

> >>

>>> When outsourcing manufacture, what steps are you taking to protect
>>> your IP (in the form of firmware) from unauthorized copying/counterfeiting
>>> by the selected vendor *or* parties that may have access to their systems? >>
>> What is the capability and desire level of the threat actors? If it's
>> an intelligence agency of reasonable large country, you probably
>> cannot do anything effective.
>
> No. The concern is that the contracted manufacturer (or, anyone with
> access to his information systems) decides to go into business in
> direct competition, simply by selling YOUR device at a cut-rate price
> (not having to recover the engineering/development/warranty/support
> costs that you have)

If you’re producing stuff in China, there are a bunch of ways to prevent your factory from going into competition with you, including registering your trademarks in China and structuring your contracts correctly. The Harris Sliwoski blog is an excellent read on that stuff. For instance, just a few days ago:

Phil Hobbs