Proprietary Information. During the term of employment, Employee shall disclose immediately to the Company all ideas, inventions, and business plans that Employee makes, conceives, discovers, develops, or reduces to practice at any time during the course of Employee’s employment with the Company, either alone or jointly with others, including but not limited to any including, but not limited to, any inventions, ideas, improvements, discoveries, methods, developments, designs, software, processes, products, and procedures (whether or not protectable upon application by patent, copyright, trademark, trade secret, or other proprietary rights) (collectively, “Work Product”), that # relate directly or indirectly to the Company’s business or the business of any client or supplier of the Company or any of the products or services being developed, manufactured, sold, or otherwise provided by the Company or that may be used in relation therewith, or # result from any tasks assigned to Employee by the Company, or # result from the use of the premises or personal property (whether tangible or intangible) owned, leased, licensed, or otherwise contracted for by the Company. Employee agrees that any Work Product shall be the exclusive property of the Company and, if subject to copyright, shall be “work made for hire” under the meaning of the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, as amended (the “Act”). If and to the extent the Work Product is found as a matter of law not to be “work made for hire” within the meaning of the Act, Employee hereby expressly assigns to the Company or its subsidiaries, as appropriate, its successors, assign, or nominees, Employee’s entire right, title, and interest in and to any Work Product, and all copies thereof and all intellectual property rights therein without further consideration, free from any claim, lien for balance due, or rights of retention thereto on the part of Employee. Employee shall communicate promptly and disclose to the Company, in such form as the Company requests, all information, details, and data pertaining to the Work Product. Whether during the term of this Agreement or after, Employee will, at the Company’s request and expense (including reimbursement of Employee’s expenses and, if Employee is no longer in the employ of the Company, reasonable per diem compensation to Employee), fully cooperate with the Company and its authorized agents in securing, enforcing, and otherwise protecting throughout the world the Company’s interests in such Work Product, including, without limitation, by # executing such documents evidencing the Company’s ownership and Employee’s assignment of the foregoing rights, as may be deemed necessary by the Company to grant or evidence such ownership and rights and # assisting in defending any opposition proceedings, petitions for revocation, or applications for similar revocation in respect of any such rights.

Employee will at all times promptly disclose to the Company in such form and manner as the Company may reasonably require, any inventions, improvements or procedural or methodological innovations, including, without limitation, those relating to programs, methods, forms, systems, services, designs, marketing ideas, products or processes (whether or not capable of being trademarked, copyrighted or patented) conceived or developed or created by Employee during or in connection with Employee’s employment with the Company and which relate to the business of the Company (the "Intellectual Property"). Employee agrees that all such Intellectual Property shall be the sole property of the Company. Employee hereby assigns all of Employee’s right, title and interest to the Intellectual Property to the Company. Employee further agrees that Employee will execute such instruments and perform such acts as may reasonably be requested by the Company to transfer to and perfect in the Company all legally protectable rights in such Intellectual Property. To the extent any moral rights or other Intellectual Property rights are not legally transferable to the Company, Employee hereby waives and agrees to never assert any such rights against the Company or any of its affiliates, even after termination of employment with the Company.

Assignment of Inventions. All inventions, modifications, alterations, enhancements, betterments, ideas, designs, techniques, know-how or discoveries which are the result, directly or indirectly, from Employee’s employment and/or affiliation with the Company and/or the Employee’s access to Confidential Information (collectively “Inventions”) shall be the sole and exclusive property of the Company and are considered a “work made for hire" for the purposes of the Company’s rights under copyright and other laws. All copyrights, patents, trade secrets, or other intellectual property rights associated with any Inventions, processes, or works of authorship developed or created by Employee during the course of performing Company work (collectively, “Work Product”) shall belong exclusively to the Company and shall, to the extent possible, be considered a “work made for hire.” Employee automatically assigns to the Company, at the time of creation of the Work Product, without any requirement of further consideration, any right, title, or interest Employee may have in such Work Product, including any copyrights or other intellectual property rights pertaining thereto. Upon request of the Company, and at its sole expense, Employee shall take such further actions, including execution and delivery of instruments of conveyance, as may be appropriate to give full and proper effect to such assignment.

Proprietary Information and Work Product. The Employee shall not use or bring to the Company Group any technical information, data, trade secrets, processes, formulae, inventions or other intellectual property that are proprietary, and not subject to a valid licensing agreement, to any person other than the Company Group. The Employee acknowledges and agrees that all proprietary interests including all patent rights, trade secrets and confidential information in and to any product of the Company Group’s business (the “Work Product”) is the sole and exclusive property of the Company or such other party as the Company may from time to time designate, and the Employee hereby assigns to the Company or to such other party as the Company may direct all such rights which the Employee possesses or may possess or is entitled to or which vests or may vest in connection with the Work Product. The Employee agrees to execute all such instruments, certificates or documents required by the Company to confirm such ownership and implement such assignment.

Ownership of Developments; Trade Secrets of Others. All copyrights, patents, trade secrets, or other intellectual property rights associated with any idea, concepts, techniques, inventions, processes, or works of authorship developed or created by Employee during the course of his work for the Company, including past employment and with respect to the services to be provided hereunder (collectively, the “Work Product”), will belong exclusively to the Company and will, to the extent possible, be considered a work made by Employee for hire for the Company within the meaning of Title 17 of the United States Code. To the extent the Work Product may not be considered work made by Employee for hire for the Company, Employee agrees to assign, and automatically assign at the time of creation of the Work Product, without any requirement of further consideration, any right, title, or interest Employee may have in such Work Product. Upon the request of the Company, Employee will take further actions, including execution and delivery of instruments of conveyance as may be appropriate to give full and proper effect to such assignment. Employee represents that he is not bound by, and covenants that he will not enter into, any agreements, either written or oral, which are in conflict with this provision. For purposes of this Section 1.3, the term “Company” also will include any existing or future affiliates of the Company.

Inventions and Other Intellectual Property. Employee agrees that during the term of his employment by Employer, he will disclose to Employer (and no one else) all, and will not use for his own benefit or otherwise misappropriate any, ideas, methods, plans, developments or improvements known by him which relate directly or indirectly to A.M. Castle’s Business (as defined below), whether acquired by Employee before or during his employment by Employer. Employee acknowledges that all inventions, innovations, improvements, developments, methods, designs, analyses, drawings, reports, and similar or related information (whether or not patentable) that relate to the actual or anticipated business, research and development, or existing or future products or services of Employer and that are conceived, developed, or made by Employee while employed by Employer (“Work Product”) belong to Employer. Any copyrightable work falling within the definition of Work Product shall be deemed a “work made for hire” as such term is defined in 17 U.S.C. Section 101, and ownership of all right, title, and interest therein shall vest in Employer. To the extent that any Work Product is not deemed a “work made for hire” under applicable law, or all right, title, and interest in and to such Work Product has not automatically vested in Employer, Employee hereby irrevocably assigns, transfers, and conveys, to the full extent permitted by applicable law, all right, title, and interest in and to the Work Product on a worldwide basis to Employer without further consideration. Employee will promptly disclose such Work Product to Employer and perform all actions requested by Employer (whether during or after employment) to establish and confirm such ownership (including without limitation, assignments, consents, powers of attorney, and other instruments). Nothing in this Section 9 shall be construed as requiring any such communication where the idea, plan, method or development is lawfully protected from disclosure as a trade secret of a third party or by any other lawful prohibition against such communication.