Undesirable transfer of knowledge or data

As described above, the Chinese government is particularly efficient in quickly translating science into applied technologies. Transfer of knowledge must then be carefully regulated when entering a collaboration, in order to avoid unwanted consequences such as impacting negatively Swiss companies’ competitive advantage or national security interests.

The following principles, developed by Empa are a useful framework to manage the use of knowledge generated by the partnership:

“Use of project results by the industrial partner

  • Non-exclusive right of use in the partner’s field of application
  • Option to negotiate an exclusive right of use in a specified field of application

Ownership of project results

  • Project results owned by the generating party
  • Co-ownership for jointly generated project results

Protection of project results

  • Industrial partner may take the lead in filing jointly owned results for protection, supported by Empa

Fair compensation

  • For an exclusive right of use by the industrial partner
  • For an commercial right of use of Empa’s pre-existing intellectual property

Publications

  • Right of Empa to publish project results while respecting confidentiality obligations
  • Delay of publication if required for a patent application

Freedom to operate

  • Right of the project partners to use unprotected project results independently of one another
  • Right the project partners to use all protected project results for research and teaching purposes
  • “Freedom to operate” for future collaborations

In individual cases, the project partners may agree on deviations from these principles, taking into account the mutual interests and specific circumstances”

In the field of data protection, the University of Geneva is subject to the Loi sur l’information du public et l’accès aux documents (LIPAD; RSG A 2 08) and its implementing regulation (RIPAD; A 2 08.01) and the Directive “Loi sur l’information du public, l’accès aux documents et la protection des données personnelles (LIPAD) : application à l’Université”.

Following Swiss authorities, the Chinese legislation does not provide sufficient personal data protection. It is therefore not possible to outsource personal data to China without encrypting or anonymising it under the full control of UNIGE. Exceptions can be granted, please refer to : https://www.unige.ch/universite/reglements/lipad/