Document Name: Confidentiality Agreement / NDA (One Way)
What is a NDA?
A confidentiality agreement, also known as a non-disclosure agreement (NDA), is designed to protect your business’s reputation, brand, and commercially sensitive information by restricting what the other party to the contract can reveal to others.
A confidentiality agreement will set out the:
- Parties to whom the agreement applies
- Definition and scope of the confidential information protected by the agreement
- Information that is excluded from the agreement (for example data already in the public domain)
What is a One Way NDA?
When to use a NDA?
There are several situations where it is common to have a confidentiality agreement in place, including:
- Where an employee has signed a settlement agreement. The confidentiality agreement is normally used to prevent the departing employee from revealing the financial settlement they received and why the settlement agreement was entered into in the first place. It is important to note that several bodies including the Solicitors Regulation Authority and ACAS have issued guidance to discourage the use of confidentiality agreements being used to cover up misconduct
- If you are engaging a new supplier or an independent contractor to help with a project they may need access to confidential information. A confidentiality agreement will provide you with legal recourse should they breach the terms of the agreement.
If a confidentiality agreement prohibits a person from reporting criminal behaviour to the police or a regulator or from whistleblowing it will not be upheld by the courts.
In relation to how long a confidentiality agreement lasts, most include an expiry clause of between three to five years. Once information ceases to be confidential the agreement (or relevant parts of the agreement) will automatically become unenforceable.
The LawBite Confidentiality Agreement Template
The LawBite Confidentiality Agreement / NDA helps ensure that you comply with the necessary regulation and achieve best business practice for a written legal document. You can get free access to Confidentiality Agreement / NDA and other legal agreement templates by signing up to the LawBite no-cost plan below.