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Intellectual
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As
an engineer, you have an obligation to protect your employer's
or client's proprietary information. Often you will be
expected to sign a confidentiality agreement, especially
if you are allowed into a manufacturing facility. This
can result in an ethical balancing act if you find yourself
in competitors' facility.
For example, an engineer who designs and sells fluid handling
systems might visit competing customers' facilities. The
engineer owes each client the best professional advice
in the selection of appropriate equipment, without divulging
how competitors run their facilities.
The issue of how to manage information from former employers
can be particularly challenging. In the course of your
professional activities, you learn information that is
a mix of both private intellectual property and general
knowledge. If you've left one employer to work for another
employer in the same kind of business, there is likely
to be information that you learned in your previous job
that is relevant to your current employer. While you may
always use broadly-applicable professional information,
it is unethical to reveal your previous employer's proprietary
and trade secrets. For an in-depth discussion of Intellectual
Property, please visit the PPC modules "Introduction to
Intellectual Property" and "Patent Law." |
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