Professional conduct

Working full-time

For students we have created professional workspaces, geared to doing a variety of activities. We would like students to fully benefit from these facilities, which implies being at the Department for all work-related activities. Being here full-time gives students the opportunity to share experiences and knowledge with other employees, which enables expertise and community building at the individual and Departmental level. Working full-time means making 40 hours a week, eight hours per day on average (and of course more hours when either the task or your own development requires this).

Most educational activities are planned between 8:45 to 17:30. However, the TU/e knows the system of flexible start and ending when it comes to working hours. We expect that everybody is present for 8 hours per day, and starts no later than 10h and ends not earlier than 16h00. Given these flexible working hours it is essential that you let your colleagues know when you will be in and when you will leave or if you have work-related obligations outside the Department (e.g. visiting a lecture, lab or client).

Illness or absence

If you become ill or cannot be present for another reason, you should notify all persons with whom you collaborate, so fellow students, project coach, lecturer or expert. It is crucial that you do so in time. After you have recovered you get in touch with these persons so you can make arrangements to get back on track as soon as possible. Your colleagues, both senior and junior, will help you with this. If your illness or absence takes more than a few days, it is likely to affect your academic progress and possibly cause a study delay. In this case you should contact your teacher coach or mentor, project coach and study advisor right away. If you are sick during a Bachelor College exam or course, you should address in the way subscribed on the TU/e central website. In this case also inform your study advisor immediately.

Time is precious

Being a professional means that you do not waste your own and somebody else’s time. Try being productive in the time that you are here and stick to deadlines. If you have an appointment with either fellow students or senior employees, prepare well for the meeting. Determine in advance what you want to get out of this meeting, in what way you would like to make use of the other employee’s expertise, and what this requires in terms of preparation (retrieving information, phrasing specific questions, etc.). If somehow you are prevented from attending a scheduled meeting or being in time for that meeting, you contact everyone involved, in time.

Intellectual Property

In our Department we all contribute to innovative ideas of our community. As a student you have access to knowledge and ideas of other people in an inspiring environment. Independent of where you got your inspiration from, the Department is formally owner of this intellectual property (IP). IP refers to the ownership of creations of the mind, the intellect. Outside of our Department and especially in innovative business areas where competition is fierce, a monopoly on the right for exploitation of ideas is often a strong advantage for companies in order to stay ahead of the competition. IP may be established on technical inventions, trademarks, and design. Only governments may issue legal rights with which you can forbid others to make or sell the same inventive product or service, or to use the same trademark or design. Copyrights on the other hand come automatically into existence by just creating an original work. These works are in the area of art, literature, music, movies etc. A copyright is valid worldwide.

Technical inventions may be protected by means of a patent, which provides protection from imitation for a maximum of 20 years. A patent is usually limited to a couple of countries, based on a company’s IP and marketing strategy. The scope of the invention is described in such a way that the competition will not get away with some slight changes to the invention. Sometimes these changes lead to very costly disputes between big companies, because protection of large markets is at stake. Think for example of the patent wars between Apple and Samsung a couple of years ago. Billions of fines were issued to both parties by US courts. Small companies also have IP issues, but these are often settled. 

The protection of trademarks is also very important for most companies. Imagine you want to start a beverage company called Coca Cola. You would probably not sell a first bottle without being sued, even when you would call your brand Koka Kola. Rule of thumb is that your brand may not confuse the public.

A design right offers protection of the form of your product. Especially if you are very dependent of the iconic shapes of your products you will benefit from this right.

Intellectual Property within your study

During your study you have the opportunity to explore the possibilities of protecting your inventions and you may even start up your own company with these property rights (IPR). It may seem complicated in the beginning, but in the end it can be very rewarding. On the one hand you will become knowledgeable in the IPR area, which adds to your professional conduct and especially understanding of business processes. On the other hand, legal protection may really add value to your future products. Think of it: if a package of an innovative product states: patented (or even patent pending), would you just copy it or would you try to design around it? 

Considering that we also work extensively with external clients, which are often big companies such as Philips, we expect that you respect the Department’s IPRs as well as that of our clients. In all cooperation with clients you need to be aware of who owns the ideas resulting from the cooperation. Sometimes a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) is necessary to prevent that either party discloses the secret information in public. It is very important to know that any publication of an invention (also in your showcase!) weakens the chance for the inventor, for our Department and for our clients to acquire a valid patent protection. Moreover, a researcher usually takes care that a paper is the first publication of the research findings. It would be very unprofessional if you would publish the results first in your showcase or in the Cursor.

No doubt you will invent many products and services. The next step is to investigate if your invention already exists and to consider various means of IP protection. Be aware that information may be secret in many cases and that you have a responsibility with respect to IP. In the end this will prepare you for working with innovative companies and adds value to your products and to yourself.

More information

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