IP

Data & know-how

2min

⚡TL;DR

  • No intellectual property right can be registered to protect data & know-how.
  • Implement technical, organizational, and contractual measures to restrict access and contractual safeguards to ensure confidentiality.
  • Generate a free NDA on our website.
  • Book a free call with us.

Data & know-how include a broad range of information used by your company such as customer lists, statistics, big data insights, marketing data, financial information, business plans, etc.

Personal data is a sub-category of data. However, keep in mind that there are legal restrictions on how to process personal data. Check out our data protection Basics page for more information.

You cannot register any intellectual protection rights on data & know-how.

The best way to protect data & know-how is to restrict access and enter into strict contracts. This way, you control both what people have access to and what they can do with what they have been granted access:

  • Access: Implement technical and organizational measures to limit both physical and technical access to data & know-how. This applies to employees, contractors, shareholders, board members, and any other involved person. These people must only have access on a "need-to-know-basis".
  • Contracts: You can implement two types of contractual safeguards:
    • The first one is to have strict confidential clauses in place in all contracts where the other party (be an employee, a provider, or else) has access to data & know-how. When reviewing existing confidential clauses, pay attention to the definition of "confidential information"; ideally, this should be as broad as possible and should not be limited to the information marked expressly as confidential.
    • The second is to carefully determine which information you undertake to give to the other party. For example, this means limiting the license scope or the information rights granted to investors.

Best practices

NDA: Proper confidentiality clauses or NDAs are in place to protect the company's IP, in particular the know-how, data, and any IP before their registration. An NDA can be generated for free on our website.

Need-to-know: Data and know-how are only communicated on a strict need-to-know basis.

Personal data: For personal data, compliance with privacy laws (GDPR & FADP) is ensured. Check out our Data protection chapter for more information.

You can generate our LEXR Standard NDA for free on our website.

Book a free call with us.





Updated 29 Oct 2024
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