Intellectual Property and License Management Application

Headquartered in Germany, our client is the research and development center for the world’s largest manufacturer of premium and commercial vehicles. The center focuses on research, IT engineering, and product development.

The complexity of modern vehicle manufacturing, which relies heavily on licensed technologies, presented several critical challenges:

• Fragmented Data: Data related to vehicle parts, SEP technologies, daily usage, and supplier contracts was scattered across multiple proprietary systems.
• High Licensing Costs: Lack of a consolidated view made it difficult to identify opportunities for license cost optimization and potential double-payment.
• Legal and Compliance Risk: Ineffective tracking of third-party rights increased the risk of legal action from SEP owners in various markets.
• Slow Reporting: Inability to quickly generate dynamic reports to address legal questions from license owners.

We developed a robust IP and license management system engineered to be the single source of truth for all licensing and SEP-related data. The system focused on optimized database performance and data centralization to enable accurate, real-time decision-making.

The solution integrates data from four main sources into an on-premise Oracle database:

• Proprietary Systems: SEP-relevant parts data from a proprietary system (via CSV import).
• MySQL Database: Production plant, consumer, and forecasting data (via daily Oracle jobs).
• In-House Vehicle Product Management System: Vehicle parts and supplier contract information (via highly-optimized, multi-threaded GoLang jobs running weekly).
• Internal Input: Product development engineers and suppliers use separate internal websites (ReactJS frontend) to update information on parts, licenses, and contracts.

The core of the application lies in its data analysis capabilities, using optimized Oracle queries, stored procedures, and algorithms to generate reports on licensing fees and cost-effective supply chain scenarios.

Key features and technical decisions that underpinned the system's performance and security:

• Multi-threaded GoLang Jobs: Employed for high-volume, weekly imports from the vehicle product management system for speed and stability.
• Dynamic Query Generation: Enables analysts to query and filter SEP reports based on specific needs.
• Indexed Queries & Materialized Views: Optimized complex Oracle queries against large datasets and on-premise data warehouse links for fast report generation.
• Data Anonymization Job: A monthly job converts references to past employees to "anonymous" users, ensuring data privacy and compliance while preserving SEP-relevant data integrity.
• Confidentiality: Data is stored on-premise on the Oracle database, and the application is tagged confidential within the organization.

The centralized IP and License Management system provided immediate and strategic benefits to the client's R&D operations:

• Optimized Licensing Costs: Enabled the selection of supply chains with the lowest licensing cost and facilitated the identification of potential license discount opportunities with aggregators.
• Mitigated Legal Risk: Detected instances of double licensing and provided dynamic, accurate reports to quickly address legal questions from SEP owners.
• Comprehensive Live Reporting: Provided instant, detailed reports on SEP technology usage across vehicle categories, hardware, software, and specific suppliers.
• Informed Decision-Making: Offered a clear, consolidated supply chain overview of SEP technologies, enhancing procurement and product development strategy.