Updated February 21, 2023
A New Jersey non-disclosure agreement is a document that employers will often get their new hires to sign in order to protect the business’s trade secrets. A trade secret can be defined as the intellectual property from which economic value can be derived if the information is not made available to the general public. The below template uses the term “confidential information” which can mean myriad things (trade secret being one of them) not limited to the examples given within the document. The agreement between an employer and an employee would be defined as unilateral and only one party, in this case, the employee, would be prohibited from disclosing the information. A mutual agreement would be used in the case that the secrecy of the information is valued by more than one party, and two (2) or more parties are bound to secrecy.
Laws – N.J. Stat. § 56:15 (New Jersey Trade Secrets Act)
“Trade Secret” Definition
“Trade secret” means information, held by one or more people, without regard to form, including a formula, pattern, business data compilation, program, device, method, technique, design, diagram, drawing, invention, plan, procedure, prototype or process, that:
(1) Derives independent economic value, actual or potential, from not being generally known to, and not being readily ascertainable by proper means by, other persons who can obtain economic value from its disclosure or use; and
(2) Is the subject of efforts that are reasonable under the circumstances to maintain its secrecy.