business help: Would you sign a non-disclosure w/o knowing the person’s name? - Help.com

Hey there.. I am actually in the licensing business. I wouldn’t sign any non-disclosures if I didn’t know who the other party is. In fact, I am not even sure if that agreement is binding if you don’t know who it is. Obviously if it were a company, and a company name was used that would be fine.. the other problem is, if you think they ’stole’ your idea, if you sign a non-disclosure and if you take them to court it may not look good that you signed it to keep their info confidential. Was your idea a patentable idea, a copyrightable work? Is it even worth the trouble to claim the idea as yours? Sometimes it’s not worth the time, effort, and money to pursue these type of things, particularly if you don’t think you’ll be able to bring the idea to the next level. You may want to discuss the details with an attorney, or if you don’t want to pay, you may be able to use some pro bona hours of a law school.

No problem.. here’s another idea, not sure if applicable to your case, but if it were a patentable idea, you have a year from the date of public disclosure (i.e. your disclosure of the idea to the other party directly/indirectly) to file for a provisional patent application and that only costs a $100 or so (only for the first year, then it gets expensive, but it gives you a year to develop.) The problem is if the other party has filed a patent, its may predate/have priority over yours.