How are Intellectual Properties managed at larger companies?

[dastructhm]

I never really understood how it works. Like, how are the source code of Windows managed, kept at Microsoft. There gotta be someone who has the power to view all the code, right? 

Likewise, how are the assembly source code(Instruction Set) of micrcontrollers/CPU managed by the management at ST or Intel? What about their hardware/transisitor designs? Who manage all that? A group of people?

[ataradov]

Generally those huge projects are spread over multiple repositories and not everyone has access to everything. Nobody builds the whole thing on their PC, it is all build by build servers, so there is no need for everyone to have access to everything. And even then, Windows code leaked multiple times.

Same stuff with hardware designs.

And then there is no real value in stealing any of this. The chances of it being useful outside of their integration systems are very low, and the risk of being caught and prosecuted is pretty high.

A team of engineers that can use Intel's code would be able to recreate it based on the published documentation. But releasing a product based on this without a licence would get you sued.

[gbaddeley]

All corporate source code that I have seen has statements like property of … confidential … company secret … licensed materials … restricted … copyright. Employees sign NDA’s. Legal teams. It’s very serious.