Intellectual Property

Intellectual Property, as defined on Laboratory Wiki, is any information that is legally owned by a non-profit establishment, such as a university or 501(c) organization. It is distinguished on this wiki from the term proprietary information because of the capitalistic slant of the latter term. Proprietary information is often regarded as being used for the purposes of acquiring capital, whereas information acquired in a non-profit environment is normally not associated with business ventures (although it certainly can be). Furthermore, intellectual property, as defined by Wikipedia, focuses on the capitalistic aspect of the idea, and subsumes the notion of proprietary information.

Because this wiki is designed as a forum for discussion of experiences with laboratory techniques, the term intellectual property is defined here in the interest of deterring editors from adding any content that falls under this definition without obtaining the express consent of the governing body. Any such content will be removed without notice, and any editors repeatedly posting intellectual property without permission, after being fairly warned against it, will be blocked from this wiki. This admonishment is in the interest of preventing violation of patent or non-disclosure regulations.

Types

 * Discoveries made by a university or non-profit researcher or staff member that is required to adhere to non-disclosure rules
 * Any patented information owned by a university or non-profit organization