http://www.lawyerslegalformsanddocuments.com/business-legal-forms/confidentiality-agreement/ - Confidentiality agreements are used in a range of situations where it is necessary to ensure commercial secrecy such as in the case of the sale of a business where it is essential that the trade secrets of the business

1. Understanding Confidentiality Agreement And Its Terms
Confidentiality Agreement very well known as
nondisclosure agreement is a contract entered into by
two or more parties in which one party shares data with
another party and expects that data would remain
confidential. The data here can be commercial,
technical, prototypes, software and the list goes on.
Confidential agreement provide clear picture of what can
be shared and what can’t be shared. The agreement establishes a time duration during
which disclosures will be made and the duration for which confidentiality of the secured data
is to be maintained.
There does exist another clause saying if asked for, all the shared secret data should be
returned without making any copies of the same. Generally a Confidentiality Agreement is
signed among company and employee, where company shares information with the
employee and expects employee to keep secrecy about it.
At times it can be associated with the individual who is owner of third party tool. In this case
confidential agreement is provided by the third party tool owner.
With respect to the non-disclosure agreement, the other party signs the agreement stating
no information would be leaked as defined under terms in contract. They assure that
information wouldn’t be stolen and reused or disclosed publicly. Similarly in case of products
released, the party states that only they have the rights to release prototypes of the product
in market. Although with a Confidential Disclosure Agreement one should do business
only with trustworthy people.
Confidential agreement is the cheapest way of copyrights protection, whereas filing patents
is a lengthy process. To legalize the agreement, lawyer can be appointed to draw a contract
between the two parties.
Since confidential agreement is associated with various business and services, there are
many existing templates in market.
Majorly the types of confidential agreement are:

2. • Breach of confidentiality agreement: This might be included among two parties. It
would contain clauses that would state action that would be taken in case of breach
of confidentiality.
• Business non disclosure agreement: This again would deal with two parties or a
third party tool individual. It would contain clauses that would state action that
would be taken in case of business rules disclosed.
• Employee confidentiality agreement: This states the clauses that employee
wouldn’t share or publicly disclose any data associated with the company. In
failing to do so, he may lose his job or might lose his reputation at company level.
Things that one needs to be aware of: There do exist fraud companies that would send
you a signed a confidential agreement. Please read the clauses mentioned in detail.