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Article: Guest column: Intellectual property audits
- Article from:
- BT Catalyst
- Article date:
- October 1, 1991
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1991 North Carolina Biotechnology Center. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The "intellectual property" of a business includes its trade secrets, know-how, copyrights, trademarks, and patents. It may also include proprietary rights in technology such as licenses, purchase options and rights of first refusal. Employment agreements prohibiting disclosure or use of trade secrets by a departing employee may also be included.
Such intellectual property may take the form of "hard" assets, such as a patent portfolio or a library of self-developed software. Alternatively, it may be intangible, subject to some contractual contingency before it can be created and/or exploited. Such is the case with options and rights of first refusal, in which a ...