any of the Proprietary Information (defined below) of the Company or any of its subsidiaries, except as such disclosure, use or publication may be required in connection with the Executive’s work for the Company or as described in Section 8(e) below, or unless the Company expressly authorizes such disclosure in writing. “Proprietary Information” shall mean any and all confidential data or information of the Company and its subsidiaries and shareholders, including but not limited to information relating to financial matters, investments, budgets, business plans, marketing plans, personnel matters, business contacts, data, programs, and other works of authorship obtained during the Executive’s employment. Proprietary Information does not include information that (i) was disclosed as permitted in Paragraph 8(e) below, (ii) was or becomes generally available to the public other than as a result of disclosure by the Executive or any of the Executive’s agents, advisors or representatives, or as a result of wrongdoing by a third party (iii) was or becomes available to the Executive on a non-confidential basis from a source other than the Company or its representatives, provided that such source is not bound by a confidentiality agreement with the Company or otherwise prohibited from transmitting the information to the Executive by a contractual, legal or fiduciary obligation.
(e) Reports to Government Entities. Nothing in this Agreement shall prohibit or restrict the Executive from initiating communications directly with, responding to any inquiry from, providing testimony before, providing confidential information to, reporting possible violations of law or regulation to, or filing a claim or assisting with an investigation directly with a self-regulatory authority or a government agency or entity, including the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Department of Labor, the National Labor Relations Board, the Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission, Congress, any agency Inspector General or any other federal, state or local regulatory authority, or from making other disclosures that are protected under the whistleblower provisions of state or federal law or regulation. The Executive does not need the prior authorization of the Company to engage in conduct protected by this subsection, and the Executive does not need to notify the Company that the Executive has engaged in such conduct. Please take notice that federal law provides criminal and civil immunity to federal and state claims for trade secret misappropriation to individuals who disclose trade secrets to their attorneys, courts, or government officials in certain, confidential circumstances that are set forth at 18 U.S.C. §§ 1833(b)(1) and 1833(b)(2), related to the reporting or investigation of a suspected violation of the law, or in connection with a lawsuit for retaliation for reporting a suspected violation of the law.
(f) Return of Company Property. Upon termination of the Executive’s employment with the Company for any reason, the Executive will (i) deliver to the person designated by the Company all originals and copies of all documents and property of the Company and its subsidiaries that is in the Executive’s possession or under the Executive’s control or to which the Executive may have access, (ii) deliver to the person designated by the Company all Company property, including keys, key cards, access cards, identification cards, security devices, employer credit cards, network access devices, computers, cell phones, smartphones, PDAs, pagers, fax machines, equipment, manuals, reports, files, books, compilations, work product, e-mail messages, recordings, disks, thumb drives or other removable information storage devices, hard drives, and data, and (iii) to the extent that the Executive made use of the Executive’s personal electronics (e.g., laptop, iPad, telephone, thumb drives, email, cloud, etc.) during employment with the Company, provide access to the Company and permit the Company to delete all Company property and information from such personal devices. The Executive will not reproduce or appropriate for the Executive’s own use, or for the use of others, any property, Proprietary Information.
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