Proprietary information: Difference between revisions

“[[Proprietary]]”, so our good friends on the world wide web tell us,<ref>{{Google2|define|proprietary}}</ref> means “of or relating to an [[owner]] or [[ownership]]”.  

Ownership implies a [[property]] right of some sort.<ref>{{Google2|define|property}}: the right to the possession, use, or disposal of something; ''[[ownership]]''.</ref> When it comes to [[information]], “ownership” is a slippery concept. Only certain kinds of information may be “owned” at all— those that qualify as [[intellectual property]]: [[copyright]]ed material; [[patent]]s and [[trade mark]]s. But permissions to use, or transfer, ''proprietary rights'' in information are ''not'' a fit subject for a [[confidentiality agreement]]. For those you need a licence agreement. An [[NDA]] is about what you may ''not'' do with information to which you already have an implied licence. This is a contractual restriction: its breach sounds in damages, for loss caused to the discloser. The use, for profit, of information owned by someone else is not, of itself, a breach of contract but an infringement of proprietary rights for which the remedy is an account for profits.