Intellectual Property and Confidentiality

Intellectual property is created in research projects of all sizes, ranging from a student's copyright on their thesis to potentially patentable knowledge in international consortia.

Intellectual Property and Collaboration Agreements
Intellectual Property is a collective term for rights that protect new ideas and concepts that have been implemented. These include copyright, patent law and database law, among other things. Intellectual Property is a collective term for rights that protect new ideas and concepts that have been implemented. These include copyright, patent law and database law, among other things. Intellectual Property rights enable ownership of new, innovative products or ideas. As a result, other parties cannot easily adopt an idea or design as their own, but they are allowed to take inspiration from existing, protected products when developing a new product of their own.

If you collaborate with other research institutions or with companies and intellectual property is created, it is advisable to negotiate IP agreements, e.g. in a cooperation agreement. Ideally, IP rights are discussed at an early stage with all parties involved in order to meet the wishes of the various parties by mutual agreement. The policy principles of Hanze University in the area of Intellectual Property provide a guideline for this. These principles are described below. 

You can contact the Legal Department for advice and support. 

Hanze UAS has established the following principles in the Open Science policy for cooperation agreements with external parties. These are based on the principles of the VSNU/NFU for public-private partnerships.

• Freedom to publish own results
• Freedom to do follow up research
• Freedom to do follow up research with third parties
• Freedom to use foreground* for educational purposes
• Ownership of foreground follows inventorship/creatorship
• No obligatory assignment of foreground
• Market conditions for access to foreground for commercial use
• Access conditions include an anti-shelving clause***
• No obligation to grant access to background** for use outside the project
• No automatic access to future results/IP rights (which are not foreground)

*foreground: results generated within the collaboration

**background: results generated outside (before and during) the collaboration

***anti-shelving clause: commitment by the user to use reasonable endavours to find a relevant opportunity to use results and not lock them away

If you are doing research in collaboration with a company or organization, look carefully to see if you are dealing with trade secrets or business-sensitive data. Examples include information and knowledge that help companies maintain their competitive position. If so, it is important that you store and share the data with others in a secure manner. Note, however, that in many cases this data may not be shared with others. 

Companies may choose to protect (business) information or knowledge as a trade secret under the Trade Secrets Protection Act (Wbb). The knowledge or business information must then meet the following three conditions: 

• the information is secret (it is not generally known or easily accessible), 
• the information must have commercial value (secrecy of this information gives the company a commercial advantage),
• reasonable steps have been taken to keep the knowledge or information secret/confidential. 

More information on trade secrets and other information on actively protecting trade secrets can be found on the site of business.gov.nl.

Students and confidentiality

The Hanze UAS has templates for confidentiality declarations and confidentiality agreements for students doing internships with (business) organizations. This template also includes a clause on confidentiality of personal data. The link to this template can be found at the bottom of this page.

Data may also be classified as a trade secret. Under the Trade Secrets Protection Act, the following conditions must be met: 

• It is not known or accessible data,
• the data must have commercial value, and
• the company (the right holder) must have taken reasonable measures to keep the data secret. 

Is data being collected or created in collaboration with companies? If so, it is important to make proper arrangements between Hanze University and the companies involved, for example, through confidentiality agreements or non-disclosure agreements. 

 
For more information on trade secrets, non-disclosure agreements and related legal questions, please contact the Legal Department.

Waar staan deze templates nu?!

Agreement templates for research(ers):

• Samenwerkingsovereenkomst waarbij Hanzehogeschool penvoerder is
• Samenwerkingovereenkomst gesubsidieerde projecten
• Geheimhoudingsverklaring bij overeenkomst van opdracht
• Collaboration agreement in which Hanzehogeschool is the principal investigator
• Collaboration agreement for subsidized projects
• Confidentiality agreement for commissioned projects

Agreement templates for students:

• Geheimhoudingsovereenkomst student en bedrijf
• Geheimhoudingsverklaring Hanzehogeschool m.b.t. persoonsgegevens
• Overdracht Intellectuele Eigendomsrechten
• Confidentiality agreement between student and company
• Confidentiality agreement regarding personal data.
• Transfer of Intellectual Property Rights