Protecting Intellectual Property When It Needs to Be Shared
Peter Wakiyama, a partner in Troutman Pepper's Privacy + Cyber Industry Group, was quoted in the July 31, 2023 Dark Reading article, " Protecting Intellectual Property When It Needs to Be Shared."
Peter Wakiyama, an intellectual property expert and partner at the law firm Troutman Pepper, says there are two important IP issues that many CISOs and corporate executives get wrong.
"CISOs may think that if there's no harm, [such as] a data breach or loss, there's no foul. That is not true," he says. "Simply failing to enact adequate protections may have legal consequences because a trade secret owner must consistently use reasonable efforts to keep trade secrets and other confidential information secure. As new threats emerge, new protections must be continuously implemented to ensure that trade secret legal rights are not compromised."
As to the second issue, "Many CISOs and other IT professionals believe that if you pay for it to be created, you own it. Not true. Depending on the facts and circumstances, the vendor/developer may retain significant IP ownership rights to inventions [patents] and copyrights," Wakiyama notes. "For example, if a vendor is hired to design, build, and implement a custom security program, unless the vendor agrees in writing to assign over all of its IP rights, it will retain invention rights and copyrights and may be free to use and share those rights with others."