Posts
Contractual Protections for IP
When most people think about legal protections for intellectual property they think about the legal status conferred through copyrights, patents, and trademarks. While these are extremely important and should certainly be utilized by business owners, many people overlook ways in which contractual agreements can protect IP from misappropriation by other parties. These can be extremely important for businesses, as the sharing of ideas is essential to make most ventures a success. There are two main ways parties can contract with one another to ensure that intellectual property is protected: 1) non-disclosure agreements and 2) non-compete agreements.- Non-Disclosure Agreements – In a non-disclosure agreement, or NDA, two or more parties sign a contract in which confidential material is identified and one or more of the parties agrees to not disclose the material to third parties. These agreements can restrict disclosure by all, some, or just one of the parties.
- Non-Compete Agreements – These kinds of agreements typically arise in an employer-employee relationship. They generally prohibit an employee from competing with an employer or soliciting the employer’s customers or other employees for a certain period of time after the employment relationship ends.
While these types of agreements may seem simple on their face, using boilerplate contract language could very well result in an unenforceable contract. As a result, it is extremely important for anyone who is seeking to enter into either a NDA or a non-compete agreement to discuss the case with an experienced business attorney prior to executing such an agreement.
