How to protect intellectual property (IP) with an FMU exported from Simulink?

There are two different kinds of functional mockup unit (FMU) that can be exported from Simulink:

1. Standalone FMU: Export Simulink Model to Standalone FMU with Simulink Compiler
2. Tool-Coupling FMU: Export a Model as a Tool-Coupling FMU with Simulink

Which kind of FMU should I choose if my goal is IP protection?

Answer 1

[MathWorks Support Team]

The FMI standard does not specify anything related to IP protection; however, "Standalone" FMU exports provide some degree of IP protection.

Standalone FMU:

Since Simulink Compiler uses the Simulink Coder infrastructure, FMU Export obtains some level of IP protection:

• Compiled binaries: the original Simulink model/source code is compiled into binary form (the user cannot recover the original Simulink model)
• Obfuscated symbols: C function and global variable names are obfuscated after code generation (the user cannot recover meaningful source code function/symbol names)

What FMU export does not provide:

• Obfuscated constants (the user cannot recover meaningful string literals and numerical constants)
• Additional encryption of the dynamic library file (the user cannot recover the original memory layout)
• Password protection for the FMU zip package (the user cannot decrypt the FMU without a password)

Tool-Coupling FMU:

There is no level of IP protection.

Other approaches to protect the IP of your Simulink model that do not involve FMUs are mentioned in the following MATLAB Answers post:

How can I protect the intellectual property of my Simulink model?