Proposals and Confidential Information

MIT does not treat its proposals to sponsors as confidential information, and  MIT will not allow our sponsors to mark MIT’s proposals as confidential. 

Because proposals are not confidential, PIs should avoid disclosing inventions that have not been disclosed to Technology Licensing Office (TLO) and the subject of a filed US patent application. The TLO  provides guidance on how to disclose and protect inventions

If MIT wants to protect proposal information as confidential, the sponsor and MIT must first execute a non-disclosure agreement. Marking information as “MIT Confidential” does not mean that MIT’s sponsors are obligated to protect it.