A proprietary patent refers to the protection of proprietary information. Proprietary information, in a broad sense, is something that is created and controlled by the same individual or company.

Defining Proprietary Technology

Proprietary technology is defined as belonging to a business or an individual and consists of a combination of any of the following items:

  • Processes
  • Tools
  • Systems of corresponding connections

Owners of proprietary technologies gain a competitive advantage over others through these different combinations.

Proprietary technologies that are created solely by an independent business are valuable assets with two available options regarding their use:

  • The company can use the technology exclusively for their own benefit.
  • The company can make a profit by licensing the technology to other businesses or individuals.

Businesses and individuals can purchase proprietary technologies; however, this is not the most cost effective option. In addition to being the more expensive choice, it also restricts the use of other fundamental technologies. For instance, if a company creates a new medicine to treat an illness, it can patent the process, technique, and the final result. This enables the company to receive a generous profit for the time and effort it put into creating the proprietary technology.

The development of proprietary technology is essential for success in certain industries; therefore, companies typically go through significant efforts to protect their inventions using the following tools:

  • Patents
  • Copyrights

One industry that relies on proprietary technology is the intellectual-based industry. With most of their assets consisting of intellectual property, businesses in this industry are heavily dependent on the development of proprietary technology because potential and current investors use the value and success of these developments to determine their investment.

Due to the heavy impact on success that research and development costs have, most companies go to great lengths to keep their projects and developments hidden from the public; however, both analysts and investors attempt to discover these hidden developments so that they can use them to strengthen their proprietary investments.

Although there are many obvious advantages that come with proprietary technologies, some advantages are not so straightforward. Sometimes it takes added technologies, also known as innovation, to truly reap all of the benefits of a proprietary technology. For example, in the late 1970s, Xerox unintentionally provided Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple, with their creation of a computer mouse which he then used to further the technology of Apple's earlier computers.

Defining Proprietary Rights

Proprietary rights can be defined in a few different ways. These rights can refer to domestic or foreign:

  • Patents
  • Patent applications
  • Patent rights

They can also be considered either registered or unregistered items such as:

  • Trademark rights
  • Trade names
  • Rights of trade names
  • Corporate names
  • Company names
  • Trade fashion
  • Logos
  • Copyrights

Proprietary rights concerning the Mandara Entities in the 2001 share purchase agreement address any agreements or rights that are connected to the technology including its:

  • Creation
  • Processes
  • Licenses

Furthermore, proprietary rights can concern any of the following:

  • Inventions
  • Processes
  • Discoveries
  • Methods
  • Developments
  • Works
  • Provider and consumer lists
  • Compositions
  • Concepts
  • Ideas

Phrasing Proprietary Rights

The following are a few examples of how proprietary rights are used in a phrase or sentence:

  • The business, nor any of its subsidiaries, has not provided any written disclosure since March 12, 2018 stating that any individual has violated, weakened, or stolen any of the proprietary rights owned by the business or its subsidiaries.
  • Furthermore, I will carry out, confirm, and provide designation of the proprietary rights to the business or its nominee.
  • I relinquish to the business all types of claims that state I might have any current or future violations of any proprietary rights allocated to the business.
  • I will carry out, confirm, and provide the stated documents and complete other tasks that the business might fairly request for use in asking for, acquiring, completing, revealing, supporting, and implementing proprietary rights and their application.
  • I will help the business in any legal way available to acquire and execute both foreign and domestic proprietary rights concerning the business's technologies around the world.

Distinguishing the Difference Between Patent and Proprietary

The difference between the words patent and proprietary varies depending on whether they are used as nouns, adjectives, or verbs.

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