The Importance Of An NDA For Business Owners In Arizona

The Benefits Of Non-Disclosure Agreements For Your Business

You don’t need to own a huge company or have some publicly-acclaimed technology to have non-disclosure agreements in place. These confidentiality agreements are standard for many businesses, and they give you an important tool to protect your business.

Non-disclosure agreements are signed between two parties – usually the employer and employee, contractor, or vendor – and they prohibit sharing specific information to any unauthorized parties. NDAs can cover things like business practices, tools and materials used in the creation of products, information about business contracts and sales, and much more. Having your employees and business associates sign an NDA can ensure that you can freely share information and enjoy more efficient business operations.

It is important that you always work with an experienced business attorney to create any NDA that you want a business associate to sign, as well as to review any NDAs that you are asked to sign. By working with a business attorney, you ensure that your interests are protected and that your NDA is enforceable.

Items To Include In The NDA Draft

Your Avondale business attorney will help you determine what needs to go in the NDA to protect your interests and to minimize your liability. If the NDA is ever challenged, one of the primary factors that a court will consider is whether the provisions of the contract are reasonable. To determine reasonableness, the court will consider:

The interests of the party who first shares the information in keeping it secret
The period of time the information is to be kept secret
The burden of compliance on the party being asked to keep the information secret
The interests of the public

Another important item that the court will consider is whether the information was actually confidential. The information must be unique, and it must not be widely known. Therefore, the secret ingredient in a popular food item could be included as confidential information, but the fact that a fast-food chain uses a certain type of potatoes that are freely available for their fries would likely not. This also means that your information might not be protected by an NDA if you are not taking other reasonable measures to keep it private.

Options For Enforcing Non-Disclosure Agreement

The best thing you can do to ensure successful enforcement of an NDA is to get the best Glendale business attorney you can find to create the NDA for you. So many of these agreements are undermined by unclear or unenforceable language. The NDA must define the confidential information in narrow and detailed terms. It should also include a time frame for when the information must be kept secret, and it is advisable to include a certain amount of time after the relationship ends (such as an employee quitting) for the information to be kept secret.

You can also include a provision in the NDA that requires whoever violates it to pay the legal costs of enforcing it. That may be a deterrent to anyone thinking about sharing anything they shouldn’t.
Follow up on the NDA by monitoring the confidential information so you can detect any breaches quickly, before the damage can intensify.

Lawsuits & Remedies

Should you discover that someone has breached your NDA, you should contact your Gilbert business attorney as soon as possible to discuss your legal options. Your attorney will immediately begin helping you gather evidence to show who leaked the information and when, as well as how that leak has damaged your company (or might damage your company). Your attorney may work with an investigator or other specialists to collect this information.

Your attorney will likely start legal action by sending the offending party a cease-and-desist letter. Your attorney may then try to negotiate a settlement directly or may need to litigate the case in court. Your attorney will likely ask for monetary damages for the breach, as well as an injunction to prevent the person from continuing to share the information.

Call a Experienced Business Attorney In Scottsdale

If you need an NDA for your business, or if you need a lawyer to review an existing NDA, or if you have an NDA that you believe has been breached, call the business attorneys at Denton Peterson Dunn in Mesa or Scottsdale. Our experienced business lawyers can draft or review any type of document or contract for your business, including non-disclosure agreements. We ensure that your current and future interests are protected, that your liability is minimized, and that your documents are strong enough to enforce if a dispute arises. Contact us today to meet with a business attorney from our team and learn more.

Brad Denton – Denton Peterson Dunn