What is a Confidentiality Agreement or a Non-Disclosure Agreement?

A Confidentiality Agreement, also referred to as a Non-Disclosure Agreement, is a contract between two parties that one (or both) party will disclose its confidential information to the other. In exchange for receiving this information, the other party agrees not to tell any third parties about this confidential information for a set period of time. This is a typical agreement that parties use if they want to discuss possible business arrangements.

There is standard language that a Confidentiality Agreement should include. I believe it is easy to find examples of these agreements on the Internet, but you never really know how good it is unless you get one from an attorney (or have your attorney review one).

If you are using a Confidentiality Agreement, then you should be aware that any information that you disclose to the other party will not be confidential if that other party already knew it or if that information becomes public through you or another source. On that note, anything you have in a patent application will no longer be confidential when that patent application publishes.

Contact me if you need a Confidentiality Agreement or if you need to have yours reviewed.

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