Elements of a Valid Contract and the Confidentiality and Non-Competition Agreements

LS311 Business Law
Unit 5 Assignment
Student Name:
Date: June 6, 2022
MEMORANDUM
Date: June 6, 2022
To: Daniel Hudson
From:
Re: Confidentiality and non-competition agreements
Introduction
A contract is an important document that binds two sides collaborating on a particular venture. It is an agreement that is legally enforceable. A contract creates, defines, and governs parties' mutual obligations and rights. It involves transferring money, services, goods, or a promise to move one or all of them in the future. Confidentiality agreements and non-competition agreements are among the many types of contracts. In the case of eHarbour, there is a need for all the employees and independent contractors to sign a new confidentiality agreement and non-competition agreement as a condition of continued employment and business relationship with the company.
Confidentiality Agreements
A confidentiality agreement (CA) is also called a non-disclosure agreement (NDA). It is a legally binding agreement between two or more outlining confidential knowledge, material, or any other information that the parties in the contract wish to share for a specific purpose, but they wish to restrict access (Radack, 1994). The parties in a confidentiality agreement agree not to share information addressed in the contract creating a confidential relationship. Like other contracts, confidentiality agreements covering illegal activities are not legally enforceable.
Confidentiality agreements are often signed by two or more entities intending to do business and need to understand their business relationship for smooth operations. They can mutually restrict both parties or single-sided, applying the restrictions to only one party (Madireddy & Rufa, 2022). An example of a single-sided confidentiality agreement is when employees sign a contract preventing them from sharing their employer's confidential information.
Confidentiality agreements can be classified as unilateral, bilateral, and multilateral. A unilateral confidentiality agreement is one way and involves two parties, and the disclosing party anticipates disclosing information to the receiving party and needs the information to be kept secret (Non Disclosure Agreement Def, 2022). A bilateral confidentiality agreement is two-way and involves two parties who participate in disclosing information to one another but intend to prevent further disclosure (Non Disclosure Agreement Def, 2022). A multilateral confidentiality agreement involves three or more parties where one of them intends to disclose information and needs the rest of the parties to keep it a sec...