Startups trying to raise funds from venture capitalists should be cautious when it comes to non-disclosure agreements. Most VCs refuse to sign an NDA. The information disclosed in the Framework and the NDA may contain personal data, and such personal data may be subject to data protection law. Generally, in these circumstances, the person responsible for the disclosure is a “data controller” under the Data Protection Act 1998, while the disclosed person is a “data processor”. A data processing clause may be used in the NDA to ensure that information is not disclosed unlawfully. When should you sign an NDA? In general, an NDA makes sense whenever you want to share something valuable about your business and make sure the other party doesn`t use or steal it directly without your consent. Here are five situations that require a non-disclosure agreement. A unilateral agreement is a contract that states that a party to the agreement – usually an employee – agrees not to disclose confidential information they learn on the job. The majority of non-disclosure agreements fall into this category. While many such agreements are designed to protect a company`s trade secrets, they can also be created to protect copyright for information created through an employee`s research. Contract and commercial researchers in the private sector and professors at research universities sometimes have to sign disclaimers that grant rights to any research they conduct with the company or university they support.
In such a situation, both parties have already decided to establish a formal relationship with the other for a perceived benefit. The supplementary agreement on the protection of confidential information is also likely to be a good addition to the existing agreement. Excellent article, well written in digestible excerpts. Another point worth mentioning, perhaps, is that these agreements usually contain lump-sum punitive damages clauses. Caution should always be exercised with these, as it is tempting to exaggerate, but the clause may not be enforceable. We also have content about this on our website. Thank you for posting.. .