Confidentiality Agreement Add Date For Free

A contract can be backdated to cover events occurring prior to the date of signature of the contract. It is a common myth that parties can backdate a commercial or technology contract to ensure that it covers events occurring prior to the date of signature.

While this kind of time limit is intended to balance the disclosing party's need for secrecy and the receiving party's interest in minimizing its responsibility under the agreement, such expiration dates in NDAs can unintentionally undermine efforts to maintain trade secret protection.

So, many contracts and agreements are considered and negotiated after trade has begun or eager discussions have already taken place sometimes months past.Thankfully, most jurisdictions allow for contracts, including NDA's, to be signed with a retroactive date. This is commonly referred to as backdating.

Whether or not the overall agreement has a definite term, the parties' nondisclosure obligations can be stated to survive for a set period. Survival periods of one to five years are typical. The term often depends on the type of information involved and how quickly the information changes.

As with any contract, a nondisclosure agreement can be legally broken or ended. For example, the agreement might not be legally enforceable, in which case you can break it because you'll win a lawsuit. Alternately, you might negotiate with the other party to end the agreement early.

Backdating is the practice of marking a document, whether a check, contract, or another legally binding document, with a date that is prior to what it should be. Backdating is usually disallowed and can even be illegal or fraudulent based on the situation.

Confidentiality agreements can run indefinitely, covering the parties' disclosures of confidential information at any time, or can terminate on a certain date or event. Whether or not the overall agreement has a definite term, the parties' nondisclosure obligations can be stated to survive for a set period.