Non Disclosure Agreements

A confidentiality agreement / non-disclosure agreement (NDA) is an agreement between two parties that is entered into in circumstances where either or both parties will disclose confidential information to the other in the course of their relationship. In an Open Innovation project it is sometimes necessary to share a secret with another company or innovation actor. A manufacturer may need to have specialised tests carried out on a prototype, and does not want competitors to know details of the new product. An assembly company may wish to know if a supplier can meet a new, tough specification which will give a quick market advantage, but does not want anyone else to use the same specification. In both of these examples the prototype and the new specification must pass out of the owner’s hands, but the owner will of course wish to retain control.