Undesirable transfer of knowledge or data

Some authoritarian states are particularly efficient in quickly translating science into applied technologies. Transfer of knowledge must then be carefully regulated when entering a collaboration, in order to avoid unwanted consequences such as impacting negatively Swiss companies’ competitive advantage or national security interests.

The following principles, developed by Empa, are a useful framework to manage the use of knowledge generated by the partnership:

• Use of project results by the industrial partner
  Non-exclusive right of use in the partner’s field of application
  Option to negotiate an exclusive right of use in a specified field of application

• Ownership of project results
  Project results owned by the generating party
  Co-ownership for jointly generated project results

• Protection of project results
  Industrial partner may take the lead in filing jointly owned results for protection, supported by Empa

• Fair compensation
  For an exclusive right of use by the industrial partner
  For an commercial right of use of Empa’s pre-existing intellectual property

• Publications
  Right of Empa to publish project results while respecting confidentiality obligations
  Delay of publication if required for a patent application

• Freedom to operate
  Right of the project partners to use unprotected project results independently of one another
  Right the project partners to use all protected project results for research and teaching purposes
  “Freedom to operate” for future collaborations
  
  In individual cases, the project partners may agree on deviations from these principles, taking into account the mutual interests and specific circumstances.

In the field of data protection, the University of Geneva is subject to the Loi sur l’information du public et l’accès aux documents (LIPAD; RSG A 2 08) and its implementing regulation (RIPAD; A 2 08.01) and the Directive “Loi sur l’information du public, l’accès aux documents et la protection des données personnelles (LIPAD) : application à l’Université”

Following Swiss authorities, the legislation in some countries does not provide sufficient personal data protection. It is therefore not possible to outsource personal data to those countries without encrypting or anonymising it under the full control of UNIGE. Exceptions can be granted, please refer to : https://www.unige.ch/universite/reglements/lipad/

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