3+ Sample Meeting Confidentiality Agreement

What is a Meeting Confidentiality Agreement?

A meeting confidentiality agreement is a document with the concord of team members to not disclose any confidential information that will be discussed in a meeting. We should maintain confidentiality in our company when it comes to trade secrets and other important information that seems to be private to the company. We must not divulge anything in the meeting minutes as everything confidential should remain in our knowledge only. In times like these, we are urged to sign a consent form or an agreement that states that we can be responsible if we will disclose any confidential information that has been tackled in the meeting.

Every business has its secrets when it comes to its products. Confidential information can be shared with employees because they can use it to make their work better. But to ensure that the important information will remain in the company, the employees need to agree with the agreement that will prohibit them to share the information with anyone outside the company, or sometimes, even with their co-workers. High esteem for confidentiality will be given to employees when it is about the trade secrets of companies that make their brand excel. If you are shared with confidential information, you should make an oath through the agreement to keep everything private.

Maybe you are wondering about how to get a confidentiality agreement. You can get it from your stakeholders and they are the ones who will tell you how to fill out a confidentiality agreement. Usually, the confidential information came from the upper people in your company because they might have been in the company longer than you are. They already know some important trade secrets that make the company popular. Before they can share it with new employees through meetings, they will make you sign a meeting confidentiality agreement. Through this, they can be confident that all matters that can be discussed in the meeting will remain private.

Even if you are not going to have a face-to-face meeting, confidentiality can still apply. There can be a confidentiality agreement for virtual meetings or a confidentiality agreement for online meetings. Confidentiality agreement for meetings is common in instances when new employees will start to know the secrets of the success of the company. Meetings are the medium how which they will know these things. Being shared with confidential information, they should be professional in how they will keep it confidential. They should not share it with other people, even with their families. This will prove their loyalty to the company and even their integrity as a person.

Components of a Meeting Confidentiality Agreement

A confidentiality agreement before a meeting is needed so that the company can protect its interest. Some meeting confidentiality rules are needed to be implemented. But before you get involved in a meeting confidentiality agreement, you may want to know its components. Consider the following and know some of the components of a meeting confidentiality agreement:

Parties Involved: The parties involved in the agreement are the disclosing party, the party who will disclose or will give the confidential information, and the recipient, the party who will receive the confidential information. It is necessary to state the names of both parties. Their names must be written carefully in the meeting confidentiality agreement. The identification of parties is given at the start of the agreement.Type of Information: There should be a description of the confidential information. You must state in detail the type of information that you are going to disclose. This is necessary so that you can justify the confidentiality of the information. You will know its importance to be protected by an NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement). You must define confidential information. This can tell the details on how the information can be told and how it should not be told.Reason for Disclosure: This is the section where you should state why the recipient should receive the confidential information. You must state your reasons for the disclosure. This is done so that you can profess that you have trusted the recipient and the recipient should not betray your trust. You must explain why they should know the confidential information. If confidential information is needed for the work duties, then you must state it in the agreement. Whatever is the reason for the disclosure, you must be apt to mention it in the agreement. This will justify your purpose for disclosing the important information.Scope of Obligation: There can be two important aspects of a confidentiality agreement. The first is you must not disclose the information. The other is that you must not use the information for your own purposes. With the first aspect, you need to be responsible so that no other people will learn the secret. You must be careful with speaking with others, making sure that you will not tell anyone about the confidential information. To the best of your ability, you must keep the confidential information secret. If you will encounter incidences at your company where confidential information is at risk, you must be proactive to give restrictions so that it will not be divulged. The confidential information is within your care, so you must take care of it to not be disclosed. The second aspect can be crucial. You must not use the confidential information for your benefit. The confidential information may be some trade secret that can enable to create a great product. The secret may cause you to earn a million dollars if you will adapt it, but you must not do this. That is why a confidentiality agreement is given so that companies can protect their rights to their confidential information and trade secrets. So, a fine can be paid by the recipient if he or she will divulge or use the information. In this way, confidentiality can be maintained.Exclusions: Confidentiality agreements have exclusions. This is also true with a meeting confidentiality agreement. The recipients should be free from some obligations that may be too much for them. Some things may be unfair or burdensome. So, to make everything right, exclusions should be made. Some of the exclusions are the knowledge that the recipient already knows, the information that is publicly known, the things that are developed by the recipient, and the information that is disclosed to the recipient by other parties. If the recipient will also be forced to disclose the information through a legal process, the confidentiality agreement cannot blame the recipient. The recipient will be free to divulge the information without breaching the agreement. But the recipient should warn the disclosing party about this matter.Agreement Term: You should be definite about how long the agreement will last. Some say that it can last forever. But the truth is you have to define a term for the agreement. Though some information may not matter after years. Technology moves fast and some trade secrets may not matter anymore after years. But still, you have to be definite about how long will the agreement will be effective. This can secure confidentiality on the side of the recipient. If you will not state a term for the agreement, after years, the recipient may disclose the information when he or she is not in the company anymore. It will be a great loss for you if your secret is still valuable. So, a term is needed so that everything between both parties will be clear.Provisions: Some provisions may be given in the agreement. This will protect you from any issues and unexpected situations. You should have an employee solicitation that will prevent the recipient from hiring employees from 1-2 years after having access to the confidential information. Disputes may also happen, so you should have jurisdiction. This is to ensure that if ever a dispute will happen, it can be handled well. Not having this thing beforehand can cause the disclosing party to spend a considerable amount of money, so this thing should be secured. There should also be an injunction clause in the agreement. This is your right to stop the other party from breaching the agreement. Since the information is confidential, you truly will want to do everything so that it will not be disclosed. You can get a court order from this clause. It is better than rather having money damages afterward. The confidential information may matter a lot to you. So, keeping it a secret is your greatest priority. There can also be a clause that gives no right to the receiving party. This states that the recipient does not have the right to make a deal with you. He or she just plainly has to keep the confidential information secret.

How to Create a Meeting Confidentiality Agreement

Do you need a meeting confidentiality agreement template or a confidentiality agreement sample? Do you need it because you are about to create a meeting confidentiality agreement? Well, if you are out of ways how you can create an agreement, we can supply you with some steps on how you can create a meeting confidentiality agreement. They are the following:

  • Step 1: Introduce the Parties Involved

    The first thing that you need to do is to introduce the parties who are involved in the agreement. This means that you have to get the names of all the team members who are going to attend the meeting and will hear the confidential information. Even before the meeting, you should get all their names so that you can prepare individual agreements with their names in them. Be sure that you will write their names correctly. Make their names complete, with their first names, middle names, and last names. Ensure that all the team members will have a separate agreement. All of them should not disclose confidential information, so each of them should have their own meeting confidentiality agreement.

  • Step 2: Identify the Confidential Information

    The next thing that you need to do is to identify the confidential information in the confidentiality agreement. You must state the type of information. This is necessary so that you can secure that the information will not harm your business. You are disclosing it because you want your business to have success. You cannot let it ruin your company just because you are disclosing it. So, you need to be distinct in defining confidential information. You need to justify why it is confidential. You need to make the team members understand that it is important to your company. Letting them know its importance can make them wary to share it with anyone else.

  • Step 3: Be Specific with the Confidentiality

    You may discuss many things in the meeting. The team members may be confused about the things that they can disclose and the things that they cannot. It may be a little unfair, too, if you will prohibit them to speak anything at all about the meeting. So, you have to be specific with the things that have to be confidential. You can do it by emphasizing to your employees the things that they cannot disclose and the things that they can divulge. Not everything that you will talk about in the meeting may be confidential. So, there can be no point if you will prohibit them to tell everything. Remember to give them freedom if the information will not damage your company. You must bear in mind that sometimes, they have to share the things that are discussed in the meeting in the workplace.

  • Step 4: Talk About the Terms of the Agreement

    You must be specific about when the agreement will begin and when it will end. The confidentiality must not take forever. You should set a timeframe for the agreement. Write the term with the specific dates. The team members must know when they should start to keep the information and when they can be free to tell it to others. Most confidentiality agreements last for 5 years. So, it may be common for you to make a term for 2-3 years. To be sure about the term, you may want to check the laws in your state. This way, you can adhere to the right things about the law.

  • Step 5: Give the Consequences for Breaching the Agreement

    To be sure that the recipient will not disclose confidential information, you should set some consequences that he or she will face when the agreement is breached. The most common consequence is facing a lawsuit. Through this, recipients will be scared to disclose the information and they will keep the secret to the best of their ability. Another thing that can keep the recipients keep the information private is by making them pay a fee if they will reveal the secret. With this, they will also be afraid to disclose the secret. Consequences can help you to keep your information private.

FAQs

What are the benefits of a meeting confidentiality agreement?

One of the benefits of a meeting confidentiality agreement is you can enforce consequences. By plainly having an agreement by mouth, you cannot ensure that the other party will keep your confidential information. Through the agreement, you can state consequences like making the recipients pay a fee or taking the case into a court of law. Through the consequences, the recipients will be forced to keep your trade secrets. Another benefit is that through the agreement, you can define what is confidential. Merely having it by mouth cannot make you state confidential things. You need to mention them in the agreement so that they can be emphasized to the recipients. Also, you can preserve business relationships as a benefit. It is a way how you and the team members can maintain professionalism at work. Through the agreement, all of you can work together for the good of your company.

Is the meeting confidentiality agreement important?

Yes, it is important. Without it, the disclosing party cannot ascertain that the recipients will not disclose the confidential information. Through the agreement, recipients will be forced to keep the secret of the disclosing party.

If you are highly esteemed to learn the trade secrets of your company, you will surely have to enter a meeting confidentiality agreement. This is the way how your company will protect its interest to own its techniques in making its products the best. So, you have to respect the confidential information and must not disclose it in any way. Well, are you looking for a template for a meeting confidentiality agreement? This post has 3+ SAMPLE Meeting Confidentiality Agreement in PDF. Have one if you like. They are free. Download now!