legal, intellectual-property, copyrightSome clients require technical documents that we would prefer not to be disclosed to a wide audience. What are the options to protect these documents ?
Do mentions such as “Copyrighted Material. Do not reproduce without permission.” offer any protections ? Is a Non Disclosure Agreement enough ?
The answer will really depend on which country you’re in, but you really need an NDA contract in place and take the steps to make sure the material you want to keep confidential is marked appropriately. Simply marking something as confidential really means nothing without an NDA. If you’re willing to share it openly with someone without an NDA then it’s really not confidential :)
Also be aware of what “copyright” means, and how that is a completely separate concept to confidentiality.
Here is a great article that goes over what you need to be prepared to do if someone violates an NDA:
http://quickbooks.intuit.com/r/protecting-your-idea/enforce-non-disclosure-agreement/
Good answer from Graham. If they are a client (have already paid for service/product) then you should (but perhaps don’t) have a written contract in place. I use NDAs for discussions with people (e.g. prospective clients & collaborators) where I have proper orders in place I have a contract that covers NDA, Intellectual Property, Copyright and a bunch of other stuff.
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