To create a Non-Disclosure Agreement, include the following information: The parties' names and contact information. The length of the non-disclosure period. The scope and definition of the confidential information. The obligations of the Non-Disclosure Agreement. The ownership and return information.
I hereby undertake to treat as confidential all and any information that I receive while participating in the work of evaluating project proposals, to use this information solely for the purpose of evaluation of the proposals, not to disclose it to any third party and not to make it publicly available or accessible ...
An NDA does not necessarily need to be notarized to be valid. The key elements for its validity are mutual agreement, clearly defined terms, and exchange of consideration (which can be the mutual exchange of information).
You don't need a lawyer to create the agreement, but you may need someone with legal expertise to review it.
Washington's Silenced No More Act limits all Washington employers' use of nondisclosure and nondisparagement provisions in employment agreements.
California courts may refuse to enforce non-disclosure agreements that are overly broad or vague in their terms. NDAs should have a clear description of the purpose, parties, and duration they cover.
You do not need a lawyer to create and sign a non-disclosure agreement. However, if the information you are trying to protect is important enough to warrant an NDA, you may want to have the document reviewed by someone with legal expertise.
If you need an NDA, looking at templates online isn't a bad place to start, but ideally you should work with a lawyer who can write a simple NDA for you or tweak the one you have. You may be able to find someone in your community who can do it for a few hundred bucks.
Both parties must enter into the NDA voluntarily and with a clear understanding of its terms. If there was coercion or deception involved, the agreement may not be valid.
Whenever you believe you are going to enter a situation that will involve you disclosing proprietary information such as trade secrets, business strategy or yet-to-be-implemented ideas, you will want to have the receiving party sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA). Do this BEFORE any disclosure occurs.