Non Disclosure Templates

Non disclosure agreements are essential in protecting confidential and important business information. Our non-disclosure documents can be used in many different circumstances and can be easily customised to suit your needs.

Non Disclosure

	One Way Non Disclosure Agreement A one way Non Disclosure Agreement to protect information that one party intends to disclose to the other.	£9.95 Read more »
	Reciprocal Non Disclosure Agreement Use to protect information disclosed between two parties.	£9.95 Read more »
	Non Disclosure Letter A one way single page Non Disclosure Letter. Use when the recipient may be to reluctant to sign a longer document.	£7.95 Read more »

A non disclosure agreement can also be referred to as a confidentiality agreement, a proprietary information agreement or a secrecy agreement. All of these names mean the same thing. The agreement is a legal contract between two parties that will set out how the parties can use each other's confidential material, information or knowledge.

Typically a non disclosure agreement is used in business to protect trade secrets, processes, or products created by a company. For example, an employee may be made to sign a non disclosure agreement or provision restricting them from sharing confidential information gained in the course of their employment. It may be the case that the employee is working on a specific project that has confidential components that they are not allowed to discuss with other employees, their family, friends, or anyone else.

Now that you understand what a non disclosure agreement is, we can look at why and how you might use it. The reasons as to why a non disclosure agreement is used are fairly straight forward. You have some information that you want to protect and therefore require someone to sign a legal agreement to confirm that they understand and accept your obligations in respect of that information.

Our downloadable non disclosure agreement is a general document that can be adapted for many purposes. You will therefore need to fill in the specifics of your personal or business needs. The first step in using the document is to determine the appropriate content. Most agreements are one-way so that you set the content and the signee agrees to it. These are called unilateral agreements and regulate the situation where one party wants to disclose certain information to the other but needs that information to remain confidential.

There are also mutual agreement non disclosure agreements. In this case both parties have information that they need to share but which must remain confidential. This type of agreement is often used in a joint venture or merger situation.

The agreement also protects the party that will be in receipt of the confidential information. For example, a reporter may discover  confidential information through another means or source. If this is the case, they no longer have to keep the information confidential even if they have signed a non disclosure agreement in respect of it.

Further information on confidentiality and non discloure agreements can be found in our business law article Handling Confidential Information and our business law guide Obligations for Preserving Personal Data and Confidential Information.