When and how often do you use an NDA (Non Disclosure Agreement)

[SusieKS]

There's been a lot of talk in the news recently about NDA's. I'm doing some research in the area to better understand their purpose and want to know:
1. When do you use them
2. What information do you generally want protecting
3. How often in a year do you use them?
4. How much time to you spend on organising them.

TIA.

 

[100acres]

There's been a lot of talk in the news recently about NDA's. I'm doing some research in the area to better understand their purpose and want to know:
1. When do you use them
2. What information do you generally want protecting
3. How often in a year do you use them?
4. How much time to you spend on organising them.

TIA.

How come no one replied? Would love to know this as well for fintech start up. Have no idea how I can get a team together without an nda/nca. Didn't even feel comfortable going to prince's trust as they refused to sign one

 

[Ian J]

As a factoring finance broker I have twice have been asked to sign an NDA. The first was in the provision of finance to a company belonging to the girlfriend of a famous rock star and the second was to the provision of finance to a close friend of a senior member of royalty

 

[Red Wood]

Signed a few of them over the years, currently under one to protect sensitive information leaking surrounding pricing, scope of work and a few other bits.

Generally business is done without them in my experience, however larger firms where contract work is included in supply usually send one over to be signed just to keep their competitors in the dark as much as poss.

 

[fisicx]

Despite doing hundreds of projects for financial businesses all over the world I’ve never been asked to sign one.

 

[Mark T Jones]

I've signed a few over the years, always with the clear proviso that we will be sharing the information.

In most cases there was absolutely nothing worth protecting beyond what GDPR would do. (In a couple, the information was so far from being factual they might as well have NDAd last night's dream)

In summary, in most cases they are a waste of paper, which only serves to flatter the business owners ego. I'd make an exception where there is avreal technological advance in there

 

[labelsmadeeasy]

We've signed a few when looking at potential acquisitions, with the proviso that we can disclose info to our professional advisers.

 

[studioJK]

In short, best practice would be whenever you are sharing any information that you consider to be confidential, an NDA should be put in place. You would see that bigger businesses readily enter into NDAs with regard to their projects (even small ones).

However, the importance of the information, likelihood of the need to enforce the NDA, the other party's appetite of having an NDA in place (given it's a commercial relationship), etc. would all need to be balanced.

NDAs are relatively simple to set up. If you would like to have a tailored draft for your business, and set up a workflow around it, please do get in touch.

One point to note is that confidentiality is very different to data protection / GDPR. If you are going to be sharing personal data, a lot more considerations would need to go into it before sharing, particularly since the consequences could be significant (from a regulatory fines perspective).

 

[2020Lawyer2020]

I draft or amend tons of them all the time as I do a lot of tech sector work/patents/inventions and also corporate transations. For example in last 2 weeks one client who is selling their business signed one with the proposed buyer in addition to a heads of agreement. Another client who is considering changing manufacturers for their product signed one with the proposed new manufacturer so they can talk about the product and its secret elements.

The talk in the news about them and the Government's consideration of changing the law in some ways relating to them is really mostly about Me-to disclosures, gagging employment victims and that kind of thing. However there have for some time been companies who refuse even in a business context to sign them as inventors in the US were going to big companies, having one signed and then suing even if the big company was already working on a similar idea elsewhere in its group. That led some companies not to like them. However most commercial companies proposing to disclose business secrets in the UK do want them and sign them all the time.