Teaching Engineering Ethics W. Gale Cutler Information costs money to generate and store and has value. Many companies consider information a form of asset.
Proprietary information is information which a company or organization owns or is the proprietor of.
Normally it refers to new knowledge generated within the organization which can be legally protected from use by others. A trade secret can be virtually any type of information which has not become public and which a company has taken steps to keep secret. Jason has no proprietary right to the information developed by Prof. Nice and in whose development he participated in a minor way. That information is proprietary to the university or the sponsor who funded the research work. When Prof. Nice receives a request from Jason he must get clearance from the owner of the proprietary information before sending a copy to Jason.