Confidentiality

Agreement about confidentiality

All collaborators have an interest in and a need to be able to exchange confidential information. The scope of the concept "Confidential information" is defined in the individual agreement.

Handling of confidential information often implies a conflict of interest between DTU as a university and the commercial parties. Normally, the commercial parties wish to keep all background and foreground knowledge confidential, while DTU according to its statutes and the Danish University Act has an obligation to publish and disseminate the knowledge to the society. This obligation to disseminate the knowledge naturally only applies to our own background and foreground knowledge. We may not publish or otherwise make public confidential information belonging to the companies.

When entering into an agreement about exchange of confidential information, you should both consider whether the confidential information is necessary and whether the agreement imposes unnecessary limitations upon the department.

The agreement should always contain a provision about a fixed duration of the confidentiality obligation. As a starting point, DTU recommends a duration of the confidentiality of 3-5 years after the termination of the project. A duration longer than 5 years should only be agreed upon, in case of very specific circumstances and prior consultation with J&TT.

It is convenient that the parties clearly agree upon how confidential information shall be marked.

We recommend that the department discusses the handling of confidential information in general and lays down overall internal guidelines.

Mandatory obligation of confidentiality

Duty of non-disclosure

All persons employed by DTU are required to observe the duty of non-disclosure that you can read more about here. The rules on the obligation of confidentiality follow from the Danish Public Administration Act and failure to comply with the obligation shall be punishable according to the Danish Civil Criminal Code.

Trade secrets

The rules on trade secrets in the Danish Marketing Practices Act also apply to DTU employees. You can read more about trade secrets here.