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When Does Information Become Public?

A standard element of confidentiality agreements is exclusions from the definition of “Confidential Information.” They’re sufficiently inevitable that longtime reader Michael Fleming refers to them as “The Four Romanettes®.” I’ve been mulling over one of them, the exclusion for information that becomes public. Actually, that’s just one way of phrasing it. Here’s a range of alternatives: information that is or becomes … Read More

Shameless Self-Promotion? Moi?

In an evaluation submitted after one of my recent speaking engagements, someone complained about how I “shamelessly” plugged my book. And in an evaluation submitted after a recent seminar, someone said, with respect to my one-minute explanation of Koncision, “Could do without the sales pitch for his company!” Given that those probably won’t be the last complaints I hear about … Read More

Revisiting RPost

This April 2009 AdamsDrafting blog post is about giving notice by email. From comments to that post I learned about RPost’s Registered Email service, and I quickly added to that post an update about RPost. I’ve decided that RPost’s service adds sufficient value that I want to include it as an option in Koncision products. More specifically, when Koncision customers … Read More

Conventions Regarding the Order of Parties in the Introductory Clause

I’ve noticed that in most one-way confidentiality agreements, the disclosing party is listed first in the introductory clause. That prompted me to speculate whether in other kinds of contracts there’s a generally accepted order in which the parties are listed in the introductory clause. On the other hand, there’s the urge to put your client, or your company, first. That … Read More

Delaware Chancery Court Addresses Confusion Caused by Indefinite Article

Via this post on the Delaware Corporate and Commercial Litigation Blog I learned of an opinion that the Delaware Court of Chancery issued last month. The case is Ion Geophysical Corp. v. Fletcher International, Ltd., C.A. No. 5050-VCP; go here for a copy of the decision. Section 6(b) of a stock purchase agreement between ION and Fletcher laid out a notice … Read More

Disclosing Someone Else's Confidential Information

Here’s another confidentiality-agreement issue that I’ve been mulling over. I don’t recall having seen it discussed in the literature. As I understand it, in a commercial context it’s commonplace for the disclosing party under a confidentiality agreement to disclose to the recipient information that the disclosing party is itself required to keep confidential under the terms of a confidentiality agreement … Read More

More Lexical Ambiguity: Is a Motorized Wheelchair a Vehicle?

The ABA Journal contains this item about how Florida police are weighing possible charges against a St. Petersburg man whose motorized wheelchair collided with a scooter, killing the other driver. Apparently, the charges could range from jaywalking to reckless driving, depending on whether the wheelchair is considered a motor vehicle. What bearing does this have on contract drafting? It’s not much … Read More

Exploring “Shall Cause”

I’m currently working on Koncision’s first product, a line of confidentiality agreements. I’m being assisted by Koncision’s confidentiality agreement editorial board (go here [link no longer available] for their bios), but I expect to air issues on this blog routinely. And here’s one to get the ball rolling: If Acme discloses confidential information to Widgetco and subsequently a rogue Widgetco employee … Read More

Website-Design and Graphics Thank-Yous

I’d like to thank two people for their help with the new site: Selene Bowlby of iDesign Studios did the web design. She was imaginative, knowledgeable, thorough, punctual, responsive, and offered good value. I’d happily use her services again. Russell Christian helped with the graphics. I’ve worked with Russell previously, and I showcased his work in this March 2010 AdamsDrafting … Read More