Watermarking techniques for intellectual property protection

TLDR

Digital system designs, from software to device‑level netlists, constitute valuable intellectual property that must be protected during IP reuse. This paper establishes principles for watermarking‑based IP protection, aiming to embed a nearly invisible, hard‑to‑remove, permanent identifier into designs. The authors survey cryptographic and design‑methodology literature and propose constraint‑based watermarking techniques with defined desiderata, metrics, and example approaches for various VLSI design stages.

Abstract

Digital system designs are the product of valuable effort and know-how. Their embodiments, from software and HDL program down to device-level netlist and mask data, represent carefully guarded intellectual property (IP). Hence, design methodologies based on IP reuse require new mechanisms to protect the rights of IP producers and owners. This paper establishes principles of watermarking-based IP protection, where a watermark is a mechanism for identification that is (i) nearly invisible to human and machine inspection, (ii) difficult to remove, and (iii) permanently embedded as an integral part of the design. We survey related work in cryptography and design methodology, then develop desiderata, metrics and example approaches — centering on constraint-based techniques — for watermarking at various stages of the VLSI design process.