Create NDAs

A Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) protects sensitive and confidential information. It’s a legal contract that prevents individuals from disclosing that information or leaking it into the public domain.

It’s signed by two parties who agree to keep the information they discuss private, and not to divulge, share or release, without the consent of the person or company who owns it.

An NDA can be drawn up between a business and an employee, contractor, investor, collaborator, or a job candidate.

A Non-Disclosure Agreement is a legally binding contract so there are consequences if you breach the terms.

If you’re sharing or discussing information that needs to stay private, you should consider getting both parties to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement. Without an NDA, sensitive information could easily make its way into the public domain.

An NDA is generally used to protect trade secrets, patents, inventions, pricing arrangements or other financial details. So, if information is commercially sensitive or intellectual property could be compromised, it pays to make sure you’re protected by a watertight NDA.

You don’t need an NDA if your team member is already covered by a contract that includes confidentiality terms, such as an Employment Agreement, Consultancy Agreement or Intern Agreement.

There are two types of NDA, unilateral and mutual:

• Unilateral NDA
  This tells the person or company receiving information that they must not divulge, share or release that information. By signing the NDA, the receiving party is obliged to keep the information protected. Both parties sign the same document.


• Mutual NDA
  When two parties share information with each other, that’s when you’ll want a Mutual NDA. This binds both parties in an agreement to keep each other’s information confidential. If your company is exchanging confidential information with someone or another company, then each party can create a Mutual Non-Disclosure Agreement for the other to sign.

At SeedLegals, when you create an NDA, it’s a mutual Non-Disclosure Agreement because in most cases both parties share confidential information with each other.

Sometimes, companies use a Confidentiality Agreement which is similar to an NDA, and usually used when multiple parties are required to keep an exchange of secrets confidential.

• Sharing one way?
  You could use a unilateral NDA – the person receiving the information agrees to keep it confidential.


• Sharing two ways or with multiple parties?
  You need a Mutual NDA – you both agree to keep each other’s information confidential.

At SeedLegals, when you create an NDA, it’s a mutual Non-Disclosure Agreement because in most cases both parties share confidential information with each other.

The easiest way to write a Non-Disclosure Agreement is to start with a template and customise it so it’s exactly right for your company.

You can start with a SeedLegals Non-Disclosure Agreement template and choose which terms you need. To get started, log into SeedLegals then go to Agreements. It’s fast and incredibly simple. If you need any help, chat online with our experts.

When your NDA is ready, send it via SeedLegals to be signed online.

Best of all, we store your documents securely for as long as you need, so you can access them again anytime. And if you need to create a new NDA, you can replicate the terms you’ve used before - you don’t have to start from scratch.

• details of both parties involved - the ‘disclosing party’ (the provider of the information) and the ‘receiving party’ (the individual or company receiving the information)


• what the confidential information is, along with a legal definition of ‘confidential information’


• why the information is being shared


• how long the agreement should last

When you create an NDA with SeedLegals, we store your documents securely for as long as you need. When you need to create a new NDA, you can replicate the terms you’ve used before - you don’t have to start from scratch.

A Non-Disclosure Agreement doesn’t need to have an end date but you’ll probably want to specify one. It could be when the relationship between the two parties will come to an end, or when the information being shared is likely to be in the public domain anyway.

While technical information can have commercial value almost indefinitely, business information is usually only valuable for a short time. Accordingly, you should set a realistic length of time for the duration of the NDA, depending on what type of information you need to protect.

Yes, it’s a legal contract and any party that signs is bound by its terms.

By signing the NDA, the receiving party agrees to protect the information from becoming public. They could be liable to pay damages if they disclose any of that information but also if it’s discovered that they’ve encouraged others to do the same.

If the information becomes publicly known but it’s not the fault of the receiving party, then they won’t be held liable under the terms of the NDA.

Also, if an important fact has been misrepresented in the NDA, or illegal activity is involved, it might be possible to legally break the agreement, but you should always talk to a legal expert before breaking a contract.

In practice, a Non-Disclosure Agreement and a Confidentiality Agreement do the same thing: protect information.

At SeedLegals, when you create a Non-Disclosure Agreement, it’s mutual - all parties who sign it agree that they’ll keep their exchange of information confidential. That’s why we don’t offer Confidentiality Agreements - all parties are covered with our NDA.