CONFIDENTIALITY
All employees and students of the
University must keep secret all
confidential information of the
University and its subsidiary
companies, such as UMIP. They must
also keep secret all confidential
information of other employees and
students of the University. Such
information must only be used for
the proper purposes of employment
or a course of study at the
University. It is worth noting that
much of the IP created at the
University will initially be
confidential information, before it is
protected in other ways.
If you are disclosing valuable or
potentially valuable information to
anyone who is not an employee at
the University (including a student),
you should always make sure that
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there is a suitable confidentiality
agreement in place. Remember that
if you disclose an invention before
the University has applied for a
patent, the disclosure can actually
stop the University from getting the
patent on the grounds that the
invention has become public. A
���disclosure��� can be telling or making
the information available to anyone
in any way, such as publishing
details of an invention in a journal,
presenting it to students, discussing
it with a colleague or even chatting
about it with friends or family.
The ���IP and Confidentiality: A
Researcher���s Guide��� (available via
the UMIP website ��� www.umip.com)
contains tips relating to confidential
information and how to deal with it.
