Confidential Disclosure Agreements (CDAs) are sometimes called Confidentiality Agreements, Non-disclosure Agreements or Secrecy Agreements. CDAs may be unilateral (one party disclosing information to the other party) or bilateral (both parties disclosing information to each other). CDAs are signed by the parties to protect each party’s intellectual property and proprietary know-how and to establish legal and procedural guidelines for disclosing and managing confidential information.

When is a CDA appropriate? Here are a few examples:

• Execute a CDA before sharing unpublished research results with a company.
• Execute a CDA before disclosing an invention to a potential licensee.
• The sponsor of a clinical trial will require that a CDA be signed before the protocol is released for the principal investigator's review.

Who signs the CDA? Usually, UMB is named as a legal party to the agreement and therefore the CDA is signed for UMB by an Office of Research and Development-authorized official.

Contact Amshu Siddalingaswamy for more information.