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38/3334–6FE Reference Handbook 10.4 · Ethics · Intellectual property & confidentiality
1. Hold Paramount Public Safety2. Licensure & Responsible Charge3. Contracts & Conflicts of Interest4. Practice Only in Areas of Competence5. Confidentiality of Client and Employer Information6. Bribes and Gifts7. Reporting Unethical Practice8. Sealing Only Work Under Responsible Charge9. Public Welfare Over Employer Interest10. Truthful Public Statements11. Environmental Stewardship12. Continuing Education / Maintain Competence13. Duty Priority When Interests Conflict14. Expert Witness Duties15. Competitive Bidding for Professional Services16. Intellectual Property and Confidentiality17. Standard of Care and Professional Liability18. Sustainability and Stewardship

Handbook formula

Intellectual Property and Confidentiality

Drawings, calculations, software, and reports may be the client's or employer's intellectual property. Patents, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets have different rules, but the ethical duty is the same: do not copy sealed work, take a former employer's proprietary methods, or publish a client's confidential data without permission (unless law or public safety requires disclosure).

Confidential business information with economic value
Protects original expression (drawings, reports, code)

Step-by-step solved example

A PE leaves Firm A for Firm B and copies A's spreadsheet of proprietary retaining-wall factors onto a USB. Ethical?

  1. 1. Whose IP?

    The spreadsheet is Firm A's trade secret / work product, not the PE's personal property.

  2. 2. Duty

    Do not take it. Use only skills and public knowledge. If A and B later compete, still no theft of files.

Answer: Unethical (and often illegal). Leave A's files at A.

10 practice questions

0/10 correct

1.Client drawings given for a project are

2.Taking a former employer's non-public design software is

3.A PE may reuse generic skills and public handbook formulas because

4.Publishing a client's unpublished process in a conference paper without consent is

5.Sealing another firm's CAD files as your original work is

6.Patents protect

7.If public safety requires revealing a confidential defect you should

8.Work made for hire in a typical employment setting belongs to

9.Open-source or handbook formulas may be used; copying a vendor's licensed input file without a license is

10.A reasonable NDA with a client is