Privileged information, Proprietary information and Patents.

                         

 

   Privileged information:

 

 

    Information available only on the basis of special privilege such as granted to an employee working on a special assignment.

 

 

   Proprietary information:

 

    Information that a company owns or is the proprietor of.

 

    This is primarily used in legal sense.

 

    Also called Trade Secret. A trade secret can be virtually any type of information thahas not  become  public  and  which an employer  has taken  steps to  keep secret.

 

 

-     Patents:

 

    Differ from trade secrets.

 

    Legally  protec specific   products   from  bein manufacture an sold  b y competitors without the express permission of the patent holder.

    They  have  the  drawback  of being  public  and  competitors  maeasily  work around them by creating alternate designs.