For a variety of reasons, businesses in Nevada and throughout the country often find that they need to execute confidentiality agreements, either with another entity or with an employee. These types of agreements allow a business to divulge sensitive information with the comfort of knowing that the party receiving the information is bound, in writing, not to share the information with anyone else.
However, there are situations in which, despite the clear language of a confidentiality agreement, the parties to the agreement may have different views of what exactly “confidentiality” consists of. The party who is divulging the information — like, for example, a business in our state with trade secrets — will want the other party to the agreement to hold that information in confidence and not share the information with any third-parties. But, the other side of the agreement may think of “confidentiality” more like “privacy” — meaning that they may view the information as sensitive or private, but not exactly being preventing from sharing the information.
Furthermore, there may be different expectations about how long the agreement will last. For instance, if the agreement does not explicitly state that it is ongoing, one party of the other may believe that, after a long enough period of time, it may be acceptable to divulge the information to others.
There are plenty of ways in which businesses in Nevada can end up in the middle of litigation based on a confidentiality agreement. But, if these types of agreements are drafted correctly and carefully, the risk of litigation can be minimized.
