What is TRUSTED NETWORK?

TRUSTED NETWORK is Beiersdorf’s web platform for open innovation and the basis for a partnership with external business partners. They are able to access Beiersdorf’s confidential scientific challenges in order to propose appropriate ideas and solutions which may lead to joint collaborations or business.

New business opportunities through early contribution to Beiersdorf’s innovation pipeline, Partnership with Beiersdorf R&D as a valuable contributor to TRUSTED NETWORK and potential collaborations resulting therefrom, which may lead to activities outside the TRUSTED NETWORK platform such as joint efforts to identify business opportunities.

Gaining of knowledge of the main scientific requirements for which Beiersdorf is striving for solutions.

Guaranteed feedback on your scientific proposals within a defined time frame.

Beiersdorf will keep the information you have submitted confidential in accordance with the non-disclosure agreement entered into between Beiersdorf and the company you work for. Likewise, your employer is obliged to keep Beiersdorf’s information confidential.

Only such information which does not fall under one of the exceptions set out in section 1 of the non-disclosure agreement must be kept confidential, e.g. information which has become public knowledge no longer needs to be kept secret.

Please note that the confidentiality obligation only applies to confidential information as defined in the non-disclosure agreement, i.e. only such information is kept confidential which you disclose to Beiersdorf via the TRUSTED NETWORK platform or which has been provided in the context of discussions initiated through requests posted by Beiersdorf on the TRUSTED NETWORK platform. Moreover, the confidentiality obligation only extends to such information which relates to the topic of a request posted by Beiersdorf on the TRUSTED NETWORK platform.

To become a member of the TRUSTED NETWORK community you need to fill in the registration form on the platform and confirm that you agree to the “terms & conditions” governing the use of the TRUSTED NETWORK platform and our privacy policy. Afterwards you have to register your company and provide us with generic information about your company and its expertise and print two copies of the non-disclosure agreement, which can be downloaded from the platform, have them signed by a duly authorized representative of your company and send them to Beiersdorf.

If you represent a subsidiary of a company which is already a TRUSTED NETWORK community member it is sufficient for you to confirm that you are bound by the non-disclosure agreement entered into between Beiersdorf and your parent company, provided your parent company has agreed with us that this non-disclosure agreement shall also apply to you.

Your registration, however, is subject to Beiersdorf’s review. We reserve the right to deny your registration, e.g. if we feel that our business interests are not compatible.

After confirmation of attendance in the specific initiative you will be asked to propose ideas and solutions to solve the scientific challenge within a defined time frame after publication of Beiersdorf’s request on the platform.

The briefing can only be seen by the invited community members. Ideas and solutions from external partners can only be seen and accessed by Beiersdorf.

You will receive a first reply from Beiersdorf whether the ideas or solutions you have proposed have been selected for further investigation within a maximum period of 8 weeks. If we are interested in discussing your proposal with you, we may ask you for further information, particularly regarding patent situations, available efficacy data or samples. If, after such further evaluation, we inform you that we are interested in cooperating with you, we will then agree on an appropriate business model for such a partnership with you which provides Beiersdorf with access to the idea or solution.

The time limit for proposals varies and can be found out in the briefing.

The time limit for feedback from Beiersdorf is 8 weeks after expiration of the proposal deadline.

Yes. A template is available on the platform and should be used for submitting proposals.

Yes.

Beiersdorf will - based on the proposals of the community members - internally evaluate ideas and solutions related to pre-defined criteria.

After you have received initial positive feedback, Beiersdorf reserves the right to check the IP situation and proof of concept before further negotiating business agreements.

Beiersdorf’s R&D will evaluate the ideas or solutions. Your proposals will not be submitted to a third party for evaluation.

Beiersdorf will most likely compare different proposals within the evaluation process internally. Ensuring confidentiality for all proposals from community members has high priority for Beiersdorf. Therefore you will not be able to participate in the evaluation process. However, you are free to write via the platform to the responsible scouting manager. You will find the contact for each TRUSTED NETWORK initiative in the briefing.

Your affiliates may receive direct access to TRUSTED NETWORK by registering themselves on the platform. When one of your affiliates registers on the platform, in principle the same rules apply as for your registration. However, your affiliate does not have to enter into a separate non-disclosure agreement with Beiersdorf if the non-disclosure agreement entered into between the parent company and Beiersdorf also covers this affiliate (i.e. if the affected affiliate falls under the definition of “affiliates” in the non-disclosure agreement and is listed in the schedule to the agreement).

In this case you will no longer have access to the platform even if you have been participating in an information request posted by Beiersdorf on the platform. Finally you will receive a letter of cancellation of the signed contract.

Beiersdorf would be most likely to terminate your user account if we believe that you have provided us with incorrect information regarding your organization or if you have breached the terms and conditions or the non-disclosure agreement. However, we may also terminate your user account if we feel that our business interests are not any longer.

The non-disclosure agreement is entered into with the company you work for.

If you represent a subsidiary of a parent company which is already a TRUSTED NETWORK community member and if this parent company has already entered into the non-disclosure agreement with us on behalf of you, you only need to confirm to us that you are bound by this agreement by registering when you accept the T&C.

We may exchange confidential information through this platform regarding a broad range of topics. Therefore it is not possible to define these topics in the non-disclosure agreement in advance. Subject to the technical availability of the platform you may see the current and previous initiatives in which you have participated on the platform. Through this data you may determine for which topics you have already exchanged information with us. Beiersdorf has also implemented procedures to allow us to determine the content of our confidentiality obligations.

The terms of the non-disclosure agreement (section 6.1) regulates the period in which the confidential information exchanged under the non-disclosure agreement is to be kept secret.

The terms of the confidentiality obligation (section 6.3) set out for how long all confidential information exchanged during the term of the non-disclosure agreement must be treated confidentially.