Your employees can be your company鈥檚 most valuable asset 鈥� but they also represent your greatest vulnerability when it comes to protecting confidential information and intellectual property (IP). To protect confidential information and IP, it鈥檚 not only about who you hire, but also how well you protect what they create. That鈥檚 where non-disclosure agreements and assignment of invention agreements come into play, keeping your company鈥檚 IP from walking out the door.
Non-disclosure agreements (NDAs). An NDA is a legally binding contract that prohibits the recipients of confidential information, such as employees, from disclosing or using it outside the scope of their employment. NDAs are designed to protect information ranging from business strategies and plans to customer lists and pricing models to proprietary technical knowhow, product designs, and trade secrets 鈥� the kinds of information that can be protected abound.
For employers, having a new employee sign an NDA is not just about allowing for enforcement if an employee inappropriately discloses sensitive information or walks off the job with trade secrets; NDAs are an important tool for preventing such things from happening in the first place. With an NDA in place, employees are more likely to treat sensitive information responsibly when the boundaries...
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