CONFIDENTIALITY
30
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),
make sure that 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
is likely to prevent the University
from getting the patent. This is
because the invention has already
been made 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' contains tips
relating to confidential information
and how to deal with it.
