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What are Proprietary Rights?

Mary McMahon
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Updated: May 16, 2024
Views: 47,921
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The term “proprietary rights” is used in several different ways in the legal community. All senses of the term relate to the idea of rights which go with ownership. Such rights are sometimes assumed, and sometimes structured into a contract so that all parties are clear on the specifics. Essentially, they are rights which the owners of something are allowed to exercise by nature of their ownership of the object, idea, process, property, or other item.

Proprietary rights to a business are all of the rights which go with business ownership, including the right to protect the name of the business and the brand. Likewise, people can have proprietary rights to real estate which they own, whether it is vacant, occupied by a home, or being used for another purpose. If these rights are violated, it can be grounds for a legal case as it would be considered infringement on the rights of the owner.

Likewise, people can hold and control the rights to proprietary information. This type of information is confidential by nature of being related to a proprietary process, containing personal details, and so forth. People with proprietary rights over things like intellectual property get to determine how, when, and where it can be used. Multiple people can hold shares, as seen when an author and publisher share proprietary rights to a book, or when a collective of engineers files a patent together.

These proprietary rights include the right to control how the information, concept, or equipment is used by a contractor. When a contractor is hired to complete some aspect of a project, the people with proprietary rights can spell out the terms of the contract to ensure that their rights are not violated. For example, a contractor might be hired to repair machinery with the understanding that the contractor will not photograph, sketch, or otherwise document the machinery, as this could violate the rights of its owners.

In this case, people may be asked to sign confidentiality disclosures which indicate that they understand that the information they are working on is proprietary, and that they will not infringe upon the rights of the owners. Violation of such agreement can expose someone to legal liability, and some companies protect their proprietary rights extremely aggressively in the interests of maintaining control of a process. Likewise, people who want to do things like using the name of a business in a promotion would need to get agreement from the rightsholder before doing so.

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Mary McMahon
By Mary McMahon

Ever since she began contributing to the site several years ago, Mary has embraced the exciting challenge of being a SmartCapitalMind researcher and writer. Mary has a liberal arts degree from Goddard College and spends her free time reading, cooking, and exploring the great outdoors.

Discussion Comments
By anon160661 — On Mar 16, 2011

No it doesn't! The employee got the benefit of the knowledge now by attending, and the certificate is just to show to the world he knows what he said he learned. The company does not get any benefit by trying to take the certificate away from employee. If you are the company issuing the question, all you achieved is demonstrated is that you are mean.

When you train employees, you cannot expect to take the knowledge out their minds. Sending them to training is an investment and as such the risk of loss is the employee leaving. The benefit is yours if he stays.

By anon121735 — On Oct 25, 2010

Can I use a photograph that is 30 years old (from a published book) and incorporate it into an art project? The original photo would be altered with various art mediums and would be transformed into something new. Is this now my art? or something else?

By anon114438 — On Sep 28, 2010

in proprietary rights does this include the certificates of training and certificates that the employees have attended that has been funded by the company?

Mary McMahon
Mary McMahon

Ever since she began contributing to the site several years ago, Mary has embraced the exciting challenge of being a...

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