Businesses should be very cautious when revealing sensitive and confidential information to employees or outside parties. While everyone may say they will keep your information in confidence with a firm handshake and smile, they may not always honor their word. They may steal your trade secrets, ideas, and other sensitive data and manipulate them to make it appear that they were the originators of the idea, product or service.
One way to protect yourself and business and establish legal grounds for enforcement is to create a nondisclosure agreement with the other party. Oral agreements give you limited protection, and they are often hard to enforce with dishonest people and difficult to prove in a court of law. Therefore, you need to have a nondisclosure agreement (NDA) in place when you share confidential information with outside parties or even new company hires.A nondisclosure agreement is a contract in which one party promises to protect and keep confidential information of another party secret during a business interaction or relationship. If someone violates your nondisclosure agreement and reveals the confidential information or uses it for their gain or profit, you can sue the other party for any damages you endured because of the breach of confidentiality. A business attorney is essential when you need to draft an enforceable nondisclosure agreement.Nondisclosure agreements are categorized in two different classifications, a mutual nondisclosure agreement, or a one-way nondisclosure agreement. In a mutual nondisclosure agreement, both parties will disclose confidential information to the other party. A One-way nondisclosure agreement is often used in the employment arena. The employer will make the employee or independent contractor sign an NDA as one of the conditions for offering employment with the company. The elements of a nondisclosure agreement may include the following:
- The stipulations of the nondisclosure agreement;
- The definition of sensitive data or secret information in the agreement;
- The responsibilities of the person or party obtaining the confidential information;
- The period that the nondisclosure agreement is enforceable and legal; and
- The consequences of violating the nondisclosure agreement.
A nondisclosure agreement is an important contract. Consulting and attaining the professional services of an experienced corporate attorney in Los Angeles such as Afshin Hakim of Hakim Law Group will help develop an effective NDA for business relationships involving sensitive and confidential information about your company, its service, or product.
For further information about nondisclosure agreements and how they can safeguard your business please contact Hakim Law Group, leading business law firm in Los Angeles, at (310) 993-2203 or visit www.HakimLawGroup.com.
