b. For purposes of this Agreement, Proprietary Information shall mean, by way of illustration and not limitation, all information, whether or not in writing, whether or not patentable and whether or not copyrightable, of a private, secret or confidential nature, owned, possessed or used by the Company, concerning the Company’s business, business relationships or financial affairs, including, without limitation, any Invention, formula, vendor information, customer information, apparatus, equipment, trade secret, process, research, report, technical or research data, clinical data, know-how, computer program, software, software documentation, hardware design, technology, product, processes, methods, techniques, formulas, compounds, projects, developments, marketing or business plan, forecast, unpublished financial statement, budget, license, price, cost, customer, supplier or personnel information or employee list that is communicated to, learned of, developed or otherwise acquired by the Consultant in the course of the Consultant’s service as a consultant to the Company.
c. The Consultant agrees that all files, documents, letters, memoranda, reports, records, data sketches, drawings, models, laboratory notebooks, program listings, computer equipment or devices, computer programs or other written, photographic, or other tangible material containing Proprietary Information, whether created by the Consultant or others, which shall come into Consultant’s custody or possession, shall be and are the exclusive property of the Company to be used by the Consultant only in the performance of the Consultant’s duties for the Company and shall not be copied or removed from the Company premises except in the pursuit of the business of the Company. All such materials or copies thereof and all tangible property of the Company in the custody or possession of the Consultant shall be delivered to the Company, upon the earlier of (i) a request by the Company or (ii) the termination of this Agreement. After such delivery, the Consultant shall not retain any such materials or copies thereof or any such tangible property.
d. The Consultant agrees that Consultant’s obligation not to disclose or to use information and materials of the types set forth in paragraphs (b) and (c) above, and Consultant’s obligation to return materials and tangible property set forth in paragraph (c) above extends to such types of information, materials and tangible property of customers of the Company or suppliers to the Company or other third parties who may have disclosed or entrusted the same to the Company or to the Consultant.
e. The Consultant acknowledges that the Company from time to time may have agreements with other persons or with the United States Government, or agencies thereof, that impose obligations or restrictions on the Company regarding inventions made during the course of work under such agreements or regarding the confidential nature of such work. The Consultant agrees to be bound by all such obligations and restrictions that are known to the Consultant and to take all action necessary to discharge the obligations of the Company under such agreements.
f. The Consultant’s obligations under this Section 6.1 shall not apply to any information that (i) is or becomes known to the general public under circumstances involving no breach by the Consultant or others of the terms of this Section 6.1, (ii) is generally disclosed to third parties by the Company without restriction on such third parties, or (iii) is approved for release by written authorization of an officer of the Company. Further, nothing herein prohibits the Consultant from communicating with government agencies about possible violations of federal, state, or local laws or otherwise providing information to government agencies or participating in government agency investigations or proceedings. In addition, notwithstanding the Consultant’s confidentiality and nondisclosure obligations, the Consultant is hereby advised as follows pursuant to the Defend Trade Secrets Act: “An individual shall not be held criminally or civilly liable under any Federal or State trade secret law for the disclosure of a trade secret that (A) is made (i) in confidence to a Federal, State, or local government official, either directly or indirectly, or to an attorney; and (ii) solely for the purpose of reporting or investigating a suspected violation of law; or (B) is made in a complaint or other document filed in a lawsuit or other proceeding, if such filing is made under seal. An individual who files a lawsuit for retaliation by an employer for reporting a suspected violation of law may disclose the trade secret to the attorney of the individual and use the trade secret information in the court proceeding, if the individual (A) files any document containing the trade secret under seal; and (B) does not disclose the trade secret, except pursuant to court order.”
- 3 -