When providing outside services, in most cases, you will be asked to sign a contract, agreement or letter of invitation. These agreements are legal documents which is why you need to read them carefully and possibly consult your own legal advisor before signing them.

You are responsible for ensuring that you are able to perform all obligations under the agreement or contract in accordance with JHU/School of Medicine policies.

General points to look out for:

• private agreements should be entered into by you as an individual and the company
• JHU and JHHS are not a party to private agreements and will, therefore, have no liability under them.  Consequently, JHU, or a representative thereof, will not sign any private agreements. Likewise, you may not sign any agreement as a representative of JHU or JHHS
• you cannot use any JHU/JHHS facilities, resources or funds. This includes visitations and training sessions
• you are not allowed to engage any JHU or JHHS employees, including students, trainees, and postdoctoral fellows
• you should not disclose, or be asked to disclose, any confidential information that is proprietary to JHU, including providing early or exclusive access to JHU research or disclosing inventions
• if you want to make sure that your agreement is in compliance with JHU/SOM policies, you can ask the company to add "The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine's Uniform Provisions" to the agreement   

For additional help with private agreements, please view our Private Agreements FAQs.