By combining security wearables with access control software, the solution protects intellectual property that can be viewed, touched or discussed in either physical or virtual meetings. Visual alerts make authorisation transparent, while detailed audit trails log all who come in contact with sensitive materials.

The new intellectual property protection solution made its public debut at GSX 2022 in Atlanta last month in the Johnson Controls’ Innovation Room.

Visible authorised presence

“The new security wearables provide a means of making authorised presence beyond access levels visible to all participants. This provides insight into who is present in which area and if they have completed all the requirements necessary to enable sensitive topics such as a Non-Disclosure Agreement,” said Bart Vansevenant, chief product officer, Rightcrowd. “By integrating our Presence Control wearables with Johnson Controls’ leading access control software, this new integrated intellectual property protection solution immediately triggers alerts if individuals without all requirements are in the proximity of identified intellectual property. The innovative solution also keeps a detailed audit trail of everyone exposed to the materials."

"While intellectual property protection is a high priority for today’s cyber security and business world, it often gets neglected from a physical security management perspective. An unauthorised visitor or staff member taking a picture of a new product, or a revenue forecast displayed on a monitor are common examples of intellectual property protection failures that can have serious consequences,” said Sanjeev Singh, vice president of Product & Program Management, Johnson Controls. “The combination of physical & logical access control technology in this new integrated intellectual property protection solution provides a highly efficient and cost-effective way to better protect intellectual property and track all those who have had the opportunity to view it."

Human and automated validation

The new integrated intellectual property protection solution integrated from Rightcrowd and Johnson Controls allows both human and automated validation to ensure that any individual in the proximity of sensitive information is properly authenticated and authorised to have access to the information.

The solution also keeps a complete audit trail of when and where any individual has been in close proximity to the intellectual property along with the ability to provide control of the room from use of a projector, other displays or power sources to prevent intellectual property exposure. People who do not meet one or more condition required to gain exposure to the intellectual property will be visually identified by LED lights on their badge holder. In addition, to the solution will generate events in the physical access control system to control the room with full auditability to who had access to IP. Exposure to specific intellectual properties can be limited to and access conditioned upon individuals meeting predetermined conditions.