Protecting Your Company's Intellectual Property: A Practical Guide to Trademarks, Copyrights, Patents & Trade Secrets

Using Nondisclosure Agreements

While conducting its business, a company inevitably will need to disclose some proprietary information to potential customers or others. Such disclosure does not negate the trade secret status of the information as long as proper measures are taken to protect the use and confidentiality of the information. Thus, before demonstrating critical software or other products to potential customers or discussing volume pricing or other sensitive matters, a company should require those customers to sign a nondisclosure agreement, agreeing to maintain the information in confidence, usually for one or two years. If the negotiations ripen into a contractual relationship, the company's standard contract should include additional ...