ONE of many lessons I learned as a young engineer working for an automotive supplier in the UK was about the relevance of intellectual property (IP) to a manufacturing business. This was before the digital age, and - as the most junior engineer in the office - it was my job to roll the new product design drawings (Mylars, for those who remember) from the vehicle producers across the floor to decipher what had changed since the previous issue. I had found a small box in the corner of the drawings that said that any work undertaken by the supplier remained the IP of the car company.
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