Re: When are NDAs not binding? Was, RE: STC Certification - What Does It Really Mean

[Gene Kim-Eng <techwr -at- genek -dot- com>]

That's going to depend on the specific agreement. Typically, employee NDAs
obligate the employee not to reveal or distribute confidential information
or trade secrets without permission, and remain in effect for as long as
the information continues to be confidential or a trade secret. For those,
once the information becomes available to the general public - for example
if anyone can click on a link on the company's support site and download it
- it's no longer restricted.  But if the NDA says "proprietary," then in
theory it could require you to obtain the company's permission even then.

What constitutes "confidential" can be very wide. Depending on where in a
product life cycle you happen to be, the mere fact that a company is
developing a particular product or type of product may be confidential even
if you redact every technical detail about the effort.

The best policy is always to ask if you can keep a copy of something you've
done and add it to your portfolio.  I've yet to have a company or client
refuse.

Gene Kim-Eng




On Wed, Nov 2, 2011 at 11:23 AM, Porrello, Leonard
<lporrello -at- illumina -dot- com>wrote:

> Is an NDA binding after a company has made your (its) work available to
> the general public?
>
> How about if they have made it available or distributed it to parties that
> have not signed an NDA?
>
> Does your average NDA prevent one from providing heavily redacted versions
> of a document that contains no proprietary information?
>
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Create and publish documentation through multiple channels with Doc-To-Help.
Choose your authoring formats and get any output you may need. Try
Doc-To-Help, now with MS SharePoint integration, free for 30-days.
http://www.doctohelp.com

---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- 

To unsubscribe send a blank email to
techwr-l-leave -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
or visit http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/options/techwr-l/archive%40web.techwr-l.com


To subscribe, send a blank email to techwr-l-join -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com

Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-  Visit
http://www.techwhirl.com/email-discussion-groups/ for more resources and info.

Looking for articles on Technical Communications?  Head over to our online magazine at http://techwhirl.com