In business, there are many situations when one business party wants to keep a piece of information completely confidential. But the safety of the information is that the other party also respects this and it also keeps it confidential.

The best way to keep the information completely confidential is through the use of a non-disclosure agreement. This agreement is used by companies, professional people, and many individuals. The NDA is needed by the company when it wants to protect the information from becoming accessible to the public. It is also used by individuals when they are given access to specific pieces of information. It is also needed when someone has to disclose very special and confidential information to a service provider.

Non-Disclosure Agreement Format

The identification of both parties, the definition of the details that are kept confidential, the scope of confidentiality obligation, and the terms of the agreement are some important parts of the NDA.

Some disclosures are permitted disclosures which are required by the law. These disclosures are required for the safety and security of the public. It is not necessary to have only two parties in the agreement. Sometimes, the recipient may want to disclose the information to other affiliated companies.

When you are a disclosing party, then you should clearly identify in NDA the information that is required to be kept secret. On the other hand, if you are a recipient, then it is your responsibility to state that all the information which is required to be kept confidential has been described completely by the disclosing party and you know very well what you can do and what you cannot.

After signing the NDA, the recipient of the agreement becomes responsible for keeping that information safe and he has no right to use this information for himself. The recipient will have to take further steps to provide the proper confidentiality to the information.

Using Non-disclosure Agreement Templates

The time duration of the NDA agreement can be decided according to the demands and requirements of both parties. Some experts emphasize that the NDA time duration should be endless. But practically, any piece of information which is confidential at some time becomes useless later and there is no need to keep it secret anymore. So, for how long the agreement would last, should be decided. The NDA should also mention that after the end of the agreement, the disclosing party will not give up copyrights of any intellectual property rights if it has. Moreover, an endless agreement may be very uneconomical for you.

There is some exclusion for the receiving party from the obligations of NDA. These exclusions include all those situations, where it was very hard and unfair for the receiving party to keep the information confidential. The NDA should also be able to deal with the situations in which the receiving party is forced to disclose the information through the legal process. The recipient should be able to disclose the information without breaching the terms and conditions of the NDA.

Free Non-disclosure Agreement Templates

Here is a preview of This First Sample Non-disclosure Agreement Template in MS Word format.