What evidence do auditors commonly ask for on A.5.32 Intellectual property rights?

Statement of Applicability entry for control A.5.32, showing inclusion or justified exclusion, implementation status and the risks it treats; The topic-specific intellectual property policy and compliance procedures for use of software and information products; A software asset register flagging assets with intellectual property requirements and linked proof of licence ownership; Licence compliance reviews reconciling installed software and resource usage (users, CPUs) against entitlements; Approved software sources and purchasing records showing acquisition from reputable suppliers.

What is the most common gap auditors find on A.5.32?

Licence counts are exceeded in virtualized or cloud environments where CPU-based licensing applies

ISO/IEC 27001:2022 · Organizational controls

`A.5.32` Intellectual property rights

Suitable procedures are to be put in place to protect intellectual property rights. Purpose (stated in ISO/IEC 27002:2022): ensures compliance with requirements on intellectual property rights and the use of proprietary products. As an Annex A reference control, it is compared with the controls determined in risk treatment (6.1.3 c) and recorded in the Statement of Applicability as included or excluded, with the justification and implementation status (6.1.3 d); implementation guidance is ISO/IEC 27002:2022 5.32.

Source: ISO/IEC 27001:2022, A.5.32. The statement above is our statement of the clause, read from the published text and cited so you can check it against the official text, not the instrument verbatim. Open ISO/IEC 27001:2022 in the compliance library.

Clauses 4 to 10 are the management-system requirements: none of them can be excluded when an organisation claims conformity. The 93 Annex A controls are a reference set: one may be excluded with a justification in the Statement of Applicability. Certification bodies assess conformity; the evidence lists here are what auditors commonly ask for, not a list the standard prescribes.

artefacts

held by a system

at each review

hard

to go live

Policy repository / GRC workspace

where the evidence lives

teal = a system already holds it · olive = produced at each review. To go live: easy when half or more of the artefacts are already held by a system, moderate from a quarter to a half, hard below a quarter.

These are the artefacts auditors commonly ask for on this requirement, our guidance rather than text from the standard. Your assessor decides what is sufficient in your context, and asks for samples across the period when a report covers one.

system holds itEvidence a system already holds

none for this control

periodic reviewEvidence produced at each review

Approved software sources and purchasing records showing acquisition from reputable suppliers · Vendor register / contract repository

governing documentDocuments that govern the control

Statement of Applicability entry for control A.5.32, showing inclusion or justified exclusion, implementation status and the risks it treats · Policy repository / GRC workspace
The topic-specific intellectual property policy and compliance procedures for use of software and information products · Policy repository / GRC workspace
A software asset register flagging assets with intellectual property requirements and linked proof of licence ownership · Policy repository / GRC workspace
Licence compliance reviews reconciling installed software and resource usage (users, CPUs) against entitlements · Policy repository / GRC workspace

First move

No system holds this evidence for you: it is people and documents. Reminders and routing to the owner still save time. Put the document under version control with an owner and review date, and log each review as a record with reviewer and date.

Common gaps auditors find

Licence counts are exceeded in virtualized or cloud environments where CPU-based licensing applies
Users install software from unvetted sources
Copyrighted documents such as standards are shared internally beyond the licence terms
The organization's own intellectual property is not protected in contracts with staff and third parties

Do this for your whole sheet

Paste the rows you run your controls from and get this mapping for every control at once, with the periodic-review ones flagged and a first move per row. No account for the first run.

Build my evidence sheet

A.5.31 Legal, statutory, regulatory and contractual requirements · A.5.33 Protection of records