Protecting confidentiality in Islamic financial contracts and structures - Arab News:

"There have been some celebrated cases where asset management companies and Islamic banks have launched particular Shariah-compliant products which have been trumpeted as “pioneering” and “first-of-its-kind” but whose underlying Shariah structures have never been revealed because of so-called intellectual property considerations and the Shariah advisory boards sworn to secrecy under confidentiality clauses.

Questions such as “Can a Fatwa be classified as intellectual property?” and “If an Islamic financial structure is classified as confidential how can peers evaluate that the structure is truly Shariah-compliant?” are valid and should be discussed head-on. Some Islamic banks have even refused to make fatwas pertaining to a product public on the grounds that they are confidential and are construed as intellectual property."