Advising a Mining or Energy Business: A Practitioner's Guide to Geological Data, Process Secrecy, Joint Ventures, and Community Agreements
By Casey Scott McKay ·
This guide is for counsel taking responsibility for the intellectual property position of a mining, oil and gas, or natural resources business, and it starts where the value actually is rather than where the registered rights are. The first step is a data register, because exploration and subsurface data is the sector's principal asset and almost no company has listed it in one place with its terms. The guide then addresses the decision to keep process knowledge secret rather than patent it and how to build the record that makes that decision safe, the technology clauses inside joint ventures where ownership is allocated by people focused on capital, the contractor and supplier relationships through which knowledge leaves the business, and the community agreements that raise intellectual property questions through a different channel. It closes with disclosure obligations and closure.
IP and Technology > General IP | Guide | Published 17 March 2024 - Updated 19 December 2025 | Casey Scott McKay - marksy.us
Summary. This guide is for counsel taking responsibility for the IP position of a mining, oil and gas, or natural resources business, and it starts where the value is rather than where the registered rights are. The first step is a data register, because exploration and subsurface data is the sector's principal asset and almost no company has listed it in one place with its terms. The guide then addresses keeping process knowledge secret rather than patenting it and building the record that makes that safe, the technology clauses inside joint ventures, the contractor and supplier relationships through which knowledge leaves, and the community agreements that raise IP questions through a different channel. It closes with disclosure and closure.
Keywords: mining counsel · geological data register · seismic licence transfer · metallurgical secrecy · prior commercial use · joint venture background technology · foreground allocation · contractor terms · assay laboratory confidentiality · equipment telemetry · reagent development ownership · community agreements · traditional knowledge · technical report review · closure data retention
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