Proprietary information: Difference between revisions

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{{a|confi|}}Careful, trooper. It is fun to throw around big words, but be aware of what they mean.
{{a|confi|}}Careful, trooper. It is fun to throw around big words, but be aware of what they mean.


“[[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>. In the context of information, that is a slippery concept. Only certain kinds of information may be owned — those that qualify as [[intellectual property]]: [[copyright]]ed material; [[patent]]s and [[trade mark]]s.
“[[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”.  


You can’t own raw data, or facts, or simple lists of things. Client lists, trading data, a credit history, the economic data from your business — these things may be commercially sensitive, and they may be secret - but ''they are not [[proprietary information]]''.  
Ownership implies a [[property]] right of some sort<ref>{{Google2|define|property}}: the right to the possession, use, or disposal of something; ''ownership''.</ref>. In the context of [[information]], “ownership” is a slippery concept. Only certain kinds of information may be owned — those that qualify as [[intellectual property]]: [[copyright]]ed material; [[patent]]s and [[trade mark]]s.
 
''You can’t own raw data, or facts, or simple lists of things''. Client lists, trading data, a credit history, the economic data from your business — these things may be commercially sensitive, and they may be secret but ''they are not [[proprietary information]]''.  


Much of the [[Confidential information - Confi Provision|information]] you might want to protect in a [[Confidentiality agreement|confidentiality agreement]] is ''not'' intellectual property: Indeed, often that is exactly why you need a [[confi]] — the secret is not otherwise protected. If it is not intellectual property then it cannot be “[[proprietary information]]”
Much of the [[Confidential information - Confi Provision|information]] you might want to protect in a [[Confidentiality agreement|confidentiality agreement]] is ''not'' intellectual property: Indeed, often that is exactly why you need a [[confi]] — the secret is not otherwise protected. If it is not intellectual property then it cannot be “[[proprietary information]]”