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Re: question about release of information by judicial or government order Davis, Scott 15 Oct 2002 11:59 EST

Several problem areas:
 1.  If your state has an Open Records law, then you need to add "law" to the first and last sentences.
 2.  The Sponor wants you to provide reasonable aid.  If you are following state law, the Sponsor is on their own if they want to oppose the release of information.

If the Sponsor does not want to change this section I explain that our Open Records Act allows us to protect any research records.

scott

Scott Davis
Sponsored Programs Administrator
University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center

Tel  405.271.2090
Fax 405.271.8651
xxxxxx@ouhsc.edu

-----Original Message-----
From: Martha M. Taylor [mailto:xxxxxx@AUBURN.EDU]
Sent: Tuesday, October 15, 2002 11:38 AM
To: xxxxxx@HRINET.ORG
Subject: [RESADM-L] question about release of information by judicial or
government order

We often see clauses restricting release of the sponsor's confidential info
and often there is an "out" if a governmental regulation or judicial order
requires disclosure.  However, the following clause is a first for me and I
am not completely certain where the sticking point is but my gut tells me
there is one.

"Release of Proprietary Information:  In the event any governmental or
judicial order requires the disclosure of Proprietary Information, the
recipient of such Proprietary Information shall promptly but in any event
prior to such disclosure notify the originator of the Proprietary
Information of the requirement and provide reasonable aid and assistance if
the originator decides to oppose such governmental or judicial order.  The
recipient shall not be responsible for any disclosure of Proprietary
Information made pursuant to such governmental or judicial order if it has
complied with the provisions of this paragraph."

My legal advisor is out for several weeks and I need some advice.

To me, this suggests that we could end up in court if the sponsor opposes a
judicial order to release info.  Also, it suggests that they are attempting
to keep us harmless if we do so in accordance with the paragraph.  I have a
few concerns because we are a state instrumentality and because I am just
not sure what the implications would be if we agreed to do this.  Also, it
might help you to know that they have some information they may give us
that could constitute a trade secret.  Although it is still not clear that
it is a trade secret, the language in the earlier parts of this clause says
some things must be maintained in confidence for a specified time period (I
think about 3 years) and this supposed trade secret stuff has to remain in
confidence forever.  I wonder if this is the reasoning behind the
disclosure text in the clause above.  Any advice about what land mine we
might be stepping on would be helpful.

thanks.

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 Instructions on how to use the RESADM-L Mailing List, including
 subscription information and a web-searchable archive, are available
 via our web site at http://www.hrinet.org (click on "Listserv Lists")
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