
Information Floods Out Of Your Business After An NDA
‘We have an NDA so it is fine we can share everything’!
How much value is being lost from your business via sensitive information and knowledge being shared with partners with whom you have an NDA?
An NDA is not a cover all.
Ideally an NDA is nothing more than a ‘permit to have a discussion’ and not a green light to open the floodgates to sharing everything.
Too often I have heard ‘we have got an NDA,’ where people seem to believe that having an NDA provides them with a magical invisible shield to protect their business.
This misperception is because people are not trained on the limitations of NDAs and the consequences of over sharing.
Why an NDA is not Enough?
Most people sign an NDA and forget about it. They do not consider what it actually covers and how it might work in case of a dispute.
Who and how many people will get access to your information? If you sign an NDA with P&G does that mean all 88,000 employees can access your information?
Have their people been trained on how to treat trade secrets and confidential information?
Are they contractually obligated to protect and defend your information?
When NDAs expire the other party may be free to disclose whatever you shared with them.
Different countries can treat NDAs and trade secrets differently.
An NDA is Only as Strong as its Enforceability.
Who are you signing the NDA with and are you really going to get into a legal dispute with them if they take and use your information outside the scope of the NDA?
Think about it: the information you share under an NDA, how to you track where it ends up and who is using it?
How Will You Know if They Take Your Information and it has Been Leaked?
Where And When Do Leaks Happen?
– Customer and supplier discussions and visits?
-Sales discussions?
-Exhibitions and conferences?
-Partnerships? These are a major leak point
-Theft and deliberate misappropriation
Do NDAs Protect Trade Secrets?
NDAs do not prevent your trade secret leaking into the public domain.
They provide recourse if sensitive information is leaked by a under NDA or contract.
Please be aware that in a recent trade secret misappropriation case in the US the judge dismissed the case, as if the information were really trade secrets, then it should have been protected than with just an NDA!
Information Flows Freely Like Water Down A River. Gating That Flow Is Not Easy.
It is important, even under an NDA, for people to know what they can and cannot share. Otherwise they will over share and your valuable and sensitive confidential information and trade secrets will be lost and gone for ever.
Think of a glacier as your valuable and sensitive confidential information, frozen and moving very slowly if at all. Once that glacier has melted there is no way you can re-create it. It has rushed down the river to the sea, gone for ever. The same is true of your information.
I am John Pryor, making IP accessible and valuable for your business.
The Benefit of Hindsight UpfrontTM
Innovation Without IP Is Charity
IP Provides Defence From Unlicensed Offence Leads To Secure Revenue. The Best Defence Is A Good Offence.
Intellectual Property Is A Business Construct To Enable The Sharing Of Ideas And Other Creations Of The Mind
A Strong And Integrated IP Strategy Puts You On The Front Foot In All Commercial And Financial Interactions
IP Supports Competitive Advantage, Drives Growth, Maintains Cash Flows, Secures Investment, Provides Monetisation Opportunities
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I am a strategy consultant focussed on intellectual property and dedicated to helping people and business to make the best use of all available IP to compete and win in the marketplace.
My aim is to increase people’s understanding of Intellectual Property, so that they can successfully and cost effectively use it in their business, to help achieve a higher valuation.
Book: The Innovation Handbook, 2nd Edition 2010. chapter: How to maximize the value of your intellectual property.
ABOUT MY YOUTUBE VIDEOS: In these videos I explain some of the most important aspects of intellectual property in ways that make it relevant and accessible to business people.
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