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However, Nick Hyde, director of the pharmaceutical services business of Dow Chemical, notes that the problem can be more subtle. Certain hard issues like composition of matter patents are easy, he says: You are either infringing or not.
More difficult are other elements of know-how that come along with a close relationship, because once they are with the contractor, they stay there. "You can't unlearn know-how," Hyde says. Hesitancy over these softer issues could lead a customer to hold back information, he notes, to the detriment of both the relationship and the solution the contractor delivers
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