International Non-Disclosure Agreements

[Cornish Steve]

I am currently soliciting bids for extensive PHP development work from teams in four different countries: Philippines, India, Ukraine, and UK. I am very excited about the business concept we are about to implement, and I am also eager to protect it. I have insisted that companies receiving the specs (which are quite extensive) sign a Non Disclosure Agreement ahead of time. I have accepted scanned copies of the signature page instead of demanding copies by air mail.

I believe that my NDA is water-tight, but I have heard horror stories about companies whose work was blatantly copied and resold by developers overseas. Can anyone provide any advice on this matter? Thanks.

[Astaroth]

I wish you the best of luck - I have just had the fun of inviting 3 consultancies to put in a tender for some work with us - all 3 of the companies have been used in some part of our Group in the past but it still took 2 weeks of constant phone calls, emails, couriers etc to get all 3 to the 3 individual NDAs in a format that both parties would agree to.

Would certainly recommend the use of a solicitor with extensive international contract law experience to draw them up - or at least read them through seeing as it appears you have already ran with what you had.

[sjbeale]

You ought to get proper signatures not photocopies. You should also contact a solicitor to get advice on protecting intellectual property rights.

SJ Beale