Hi everyone. How many of you have experience with Non-disclosure Agreements or confidentiality contracts? I mean, have you ever worked in an environment where non-disclosure agreements were part of the setup? If so, what was your role in that process? Did you create the NDA or did you have to follow the rules set out in it?
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I’ve singed many NDAs. They are the norm in engineering.
The company provides a form which the employee fills out. This usually happens on the first day of work, before lunch. It basically states that you will not disclose any proprietary information to anyone outside the company. It usually gives some examples such as technical information, customer lists, etc.
While I don’t remember seeing it in the formal document, very often the confidentiality extends to other employees of the same company. It’s on a “need to know” basis.
There will probably be a section where you list any patents you have or are named in.
NDAs are usually not strongly enforced. In some cases they are completely ignored. For example NDAs for beta testers of games tend to be ignored.
NDAs are sometimes combined with non-competition agreements or other documents. From what I’ve heard, non-competition agreements are not enforceable in many jurisdictions.
This whole thing falls under what is generally called “experience”. There can be a very fine line between experience and proprietary information.
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