Intellectual property rights of third parties
We respect the intellectual property of third parties and may only use it if granted the right to do so.
Such intellectual property of third parties includes their:
- Protected commercial rights (such as patents, trademarks, and registered designs)
- Copyrighted items (such as software and image rights)
- Trade secrets
We are only permitted to use and distribute third-party know-how not protected by commercial rights, copyright, or trade secret, if this is not prohibited by other legal or contractual regulations.
Third-party know-how and confidentiality agreements
If third-party know-how was provided to us under a confidentiality agreement, it may be used and distributed only in compliance with that agreement, regardless of whether it is intellectual property or not. This includes manufacturing data, dimensions, and tolerances, as well as manufacturing drawings, individually obtained from third parties. We use third-party software – including open-source software and firmware – only within the scope allowed by law and in compliance with the respective license conditions.
As a software developer, you find a code in a forum that could help you with a problem you are working on at Bosch. Do you copy the code and paste it into your program?
Without knowing who owns the rights to the code or obtaining a license, you cannot use it legally. Just because a code is publicly accessible online does not mean that everyone is allowed to use it. At Bosch, we only use third-party software within the scope of the rights granted and in compliance with the relevant license conditions.
