Optimizing Intellectual Property Control and Deepening The Most Reliable Engineering Services

— Quality Management Dept., CTCI Corp., Group Engineering Business

In recent years, with the increasing emphasis on the protection of intellectual property (IP) in the world, whether company can provide customers with reliable information protection is greatly related to the international competitiveness of enterprises. The article will introduce how CTCI protects the intellectual property of company, owners, partners, licenser and suppliers by adopting more refined controls and measures.

Introduction

According to ISO 9001:2015, “Consistently meeting requirements and addressing future needs and expectations poses a challenge for organizations in an increasingly dynamic and complex environment. To achieve this objective, the organization might find it necessary to adopt various forms of improvement in addition to correction and continual improvement, such as breakthrough change, innovation and re-organization.”

Integrity is not only one key dimension of the corporate culture of CTCI but also an important part of our core competitiveness. In order to strengthen CTCI’s competitiveness and provide a solid foundation for sustainable development, this year (2018), CTCI deeply rooted the concept and awareness of all employees' intellectual property protection, which establish the foundation of CTCI engineering service quality by strengthening organizational responsibility and optimizing intellectual property (IP) control.

Optimization of Intellectual Property (IP) Controls

CTCI had already established controls for intellectual property protection in 2002, and the controls were reviewed and revised several times from 2002 to 2017. In response to the trend of international development and new requirements in recent years, and to allow the intellectual property protection controls to comply with the spirit of “Integrity”, one of the key dimensions of CTCI corporate culture , properly managing significant intellectual property and meet clients’ requirements, IP protection controls have been comprehensively reviewed during 2017 and 2018.  Measures adopted include members signing the“Letter of Undertaking to CTCI CORPORATION’s Policies on Confidentiality and Intellectual Property Rights”, “Non-Disclosure Agreement” , and controls of confidential documents. The controls and IP related SOPs have been revised and the related SOPs may be referred to as the table below.

Since 2018, CTCI has strengthened the powers and responsibilities of all units in the protection and control of intellectual property. Each unit should identify the list of confidential documents. Unit Heads shall also set an example for others, make sure   promotions are enforced, and supervise their colleagues to carry out operations in accordance with SOPs to ensure the implementation of the control mechanism. The following is a summary of optimization of IP control mechanism:

1. Classification of confidential documents
To distinguish the confidentiality of documents and to plan effective and feasible control mechanisms, documents are classified as “Secret” and “Sensitive” according to their contents, properties and accessibility of hierarchy, and the results of classification are incorporated into SOPs.

2. Marking of confidential classification and warning
The content of the warnings and copyright notices are adjusted for different classification of confidentiality and the application scope of documents. Besides, for being identified quickly and effectively, all of the confidential documents are requested to be marked their "confidential classification" and "confidential warnings" in a unified manner. The document controls are aim to different types such as IT systems, electronic secret documents and paper documents. For specific electronic secret documents, they are indicated watermark automatically for warning.

3. Optimization of controls and tools
To make the control more specific and easier to understand and implement, the control mechanism stipulates different types of documents, such as IT systems, electronic documents and paper documents. The scope of controls includes marking and its location, custody, restriction of transmission/distribution/use, record for tracking, and destruction. The management tool for IT system and electronic documents, which is established without affecting the existing operation, are not only practical and rigorous but cost-effective to meet control requirements.

4. Strengthening project execution controls
In order to meet the requirement of international customers and enhance the trust of customers in CTCI, we have strengthened project execution controls. From the project initial stage, the project intellectual property protection manager (PIPM) should establish a project IP plan according to contract, NDA and Company internal requirements.IP plan shall include NDA summary, confidential document list, training plan, access control, and information security management, to be more specific. During projection execution, PIPM shall also conduct routine checks to remind team members of their confidentiality responsibilities, and implement IP audits regularly to control the effectiveness of operations. After a project is closed, all the confidential documents should be filed and controlled by company level in specified area.

5. Daily control, audit, and feedback
For daily control, SOPs list do’s and don’ts to help colleagues deepen the control of IP protection in daily operations, and also make colleagues realize the key points of IP controls by defining IP audit properties and check items. We also attach importance to relevant feedback. Besides propaganda and reminders, the channels have been set and stipulated in SOP. For example, “Whenever colleagues find that there are Confidential Documents meet the definition written in the SOP, but which are not included within List of Confidential Document, or the classification of documents within List of Confidential Document required appropriate amendment, colleagues shall submit a request  to the Unit Head in charge with a recommendation of adjustment.”

Promotion and Deepening Awareness of IP Control

How to enable every employee to understand, recognize, and implement the newly refined IP controls in work operations is an important issue. Thus, IP promotion team shot a series of IP protection promotion films and hold the IP Star Selection Activity to help colleagues understand the relation between control key points and their rights by watching interesting films and deepen the awareness of IP protection controls regulations and system operation.

We invited all CTCI colleagues and clients to participate in shooting the promotion films of IT protection, which created an immense response. The films have been listed as Group internal training material that all employees must watch and are required to pass an exam afterwards to ensure the key points and requirements of the control mechanisms are understood, and then able to demonstrate the positive behavior of IP protection.

With a vision on corporate and environmental sustainability, CTCI actively participates in environmental education activities to fulfill its social responsibilities. Its subsidiary, ECOVE Environment Corp., specializes in resource cycling and extends its expertise into circular economy through energy from waste (EfW), solar power, and recycling. Under the brand spirit, “Every Resource Counts”, the company continues to work with communities, schools and public offices to provide quality environmental education facilities, promote environmental protection and sustainability education. These activities have become benchmarking campaigns that highlight the uniqueness of CTCI and have brought positive influence on the society.

For projects, besides the aforesaid promotion, to ensure every project team member understands the requirements of NDA, Project Contract Manager  is requested to abstract the key points and requirements of NDAs. After the summary has been reviewed and approved by PM, PIPM should bring the results into line with the IP plan to demand each level of project members to implement training and promotion, so that project members can carry out the requirements in their work. If the owner/client/Licensor/joint venture or partner’s NDA has specified requisitions, it is necessary for all project members to sign project NDA individually. The Vendors, including suppliers and subcontractors, for all projects shall enter into a “Non-Disclosure Agreement with the Vendor”, also, relevant confidential clauses shall be incorporated in the formal sub-contract as well as formal purchase orders.

The main purpose of establishing control mechanisms of intelligent property protection is to let every member of CTCI be highly aware of the essence of IP protection, carry it out in work and constantly refining related practices. By so doing, we hope to lay a solid foundation for CTCI’s most reliable engineering services.