Confidential Information and Intellectual Property
We protect our and our business partners’ most valuable and irreplaceable assets.
OUR COMMITMENT
Our confidential information and intellectual property are among our most critical assets. They represent the outcome of significant investment and years of hard work. They also assist us in developing innovative and enabling solutions for our customers and business partners through strategic R&D and materials expertise.
CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION
Our confidential information may include:
- Business and marketing plans
- Strategies and campaigns
- Financial budgets, projections and results
- Pricing and sales data
- Customer, supplier and employee lists and records
- Production methods and procedures
- Technical, engineering, and scientific research and development
- Other information that is confidential, competitively sensitive, or proprietary
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
Our intellectual property may include:
- Patents
- Trade secrets
- Copyrights
- Trademarks
- Designs, logos, brands
- Know-how
- Inventions
- Processes, capabilities and materials
To the extent permitted by law, our intellectual property also includes work product created by employees in connection with their duties or while using company resources or information.
OUR EXPECTATIONS
During your employment, you may be exposed to intellectual property or confidential information of CoorsTek, our customers, suppliers or business partners, or another third party. You should:
- Never allow a third party to use our intellectual property without proper authorization and a license agreement approved by the CoorsTek Legal Department
- Promptly disclose any work product created by you, so that it may receive the same protection as other intellectual property of CoorsTek
- Always assume that CoorsTek information is confidential or competitively sensitive, unless you have knowledge that CoorsTek has publicly released the information
- Always take reasonable and necessary precautions to protect any confidential information relating to CoorsTek or another company
- Never disclose any confidential information relating to CoorsTek or another company to anyone outside CoorsTek, unless the disclosure is properly authorized, necessary for a legitimate business purpose, and subject to a written confidentiality agreement approved by the CoorsTek Legal Department
- Only share confidential information within CoorsTek and among your co-workers on a need-to-know basis
What If?
Q: I have been asked to teach a marketing course at a local business school. I believe my students would enjoy discussing how CoorsTek developed several marketing campaigns. May I discuss this work in my class?
A: Only if you first received the approval of the CoorsTek Legal Department. CoorsTek marketing campaigns are a CoorsTek asset developed using company time, resources, and information. Much of this work may include trademarks and other intellectual property of CoorsTek. This work may also include proprietary information about CoorsTek that would not be appropriate to reveal outside the company.
What If?
Q: I received an email from my manager with confidential business information. I know I cannot share this email with anyone outside of the company, but can I share it with a coworker?
A: Not unless your coworker is authorized to see it. You should first ask your manager who you can share the email with, so that you can be sure that you only share confidential business information with employees who are authorized to see it and who have a need to know the information as part of their job duties.
Additional Resources
Visit the Intellectual Property and Confidential Information intranet page* on the CoorsTek Intranet to find guidance regarding CoorsTek intellectual property and confidential information.
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*To access the Intellectual Property and Confidential Information page Intranet page, you must be on the CoorsTek VPN or on the network from one of our office or facility locations.