Description

It's no secret that inventors need to protect their secrets. If you present an invention to a prospective buyer or licensee, it can be stolen. The best way to protect yourself is with a nondisclosure agreement.

But it's not enough to hand a company a one-size-fits-all nondisclosure agreement and expect a signature. The company may request modifications to the inventor's agreement, supply its own agreement or actually require an inventor to give up claims of confidentiality.

This plain-English eGuide helps inventors create, modify and understand nondisclosure agreements. In addition to providing sample agreements, it explains:

• the laws concerning trade secrets and their limitations
  
• the risks of proceeding without a nondisclosure agreement
  
• the dangers posed by waiver agreements
  
• what to do if a company won't sign an agreement
  
• which modifications help the inventor and which modifications can hurt
  
• the perils of disclosing to employees, contractors and attorneys
  
• the meaning of each of the legalese "boilerplate" provisions in nondisclosure agreements

Disclosing your invention requires a balancing act: Presenting the best aspects of your invention while protecting the confidential aspects of your work. With this eGuide an inventor can effectively maintain the necessary balance and minimize the risks of disclosure. Download it now.

Table of Contents

• A. What Are Trade Secrets?
• B. Nondisclosure Agreements
• C. Proceeding Without an Agreement
• D. Waiver Agreements
• E. When You Have Sufficient Bargaining Power
• F. Disclosing to Employees and Contractors
• G. Disclosing to an Attorney
• Appendix

Forms

• One Way Nondisclosure Agreement

System Requirements

Operating system: Windows- and Macintosh-compatible. The computer you use to purchase an eGuide must be the same computer you will download it to. (For example, don't purchase the eGuide using your computer at work if you intend to download it later on to your home computer; instead, wait until you're on the computer you intend to download the eGuide to and then make your purchase. After you've downloaded the file, you will be able to "transfer" it to another computer by copying it to external media or by email.) In addition, you will not be able to download this file if:

• cookies are disabled on your computer, or
• a firewall prevents you from downloading files from the Internet.

Software: Before you can use an eGuide, additional software must be installed:
To expand the ZIP archive you download after making your purchase, you'll need:

• A decompression utility such as the following, both of which can be downloaded for free:

• 7-Zip (http://www.7-zip.org) (for Windows users).
• StuffIt Expander (http://my.smithmicro.com/mac/stuffit/expander.html) (for Macintosh). Please note: Many recently manufactured Macs have a native capability to decompress zip files. See your computer's user manual for verification of this and instructions for access.

To open, read and print an eGuide, you need Adobe Acrobat Reader 5.0 or greater, or another program that "reads" PDF (portable document format) files. (Download Adobe Reader for free from http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html.)