I am not a technology lawyer, but I wish I were. I worked at a business school for quite a while and was exposed to all of the excitement of start-ups and technology transfer. There is a lot to think about when it comes to technology, including nondisclosure agreements, fair use and copyright, ownership rights and disputes, and risk management.
I know some about fair use and copyright from all of my years as a journalist. That knowledge has held me in good stead as a blogger and attorney. I really know nothing about ownership rights, and a smidgen about risk management.
I learned about nondisclosure agreements in my remedies class in law school. The idea of a non-disclosure makes sense, because you don't want others to learn your secrets and then pass them on inappropriately and financially benefit from that. That is why some companies ask independent contractors to sign such agreements. I have been asked to sign nondisclosure agreements for some of my freelance assignments. It has been kind of funny, though, because in the course of my work, I didn't learn anything that I could have passed on. So the nondisclosure agreement was unnecessary. I wondered why they asked me to sign one, unless they don't really know how to use such an agreement, or maybe they weren't sure of the scope of the project at first. But I signed it, and the freelance gig went nowhere. Go figure.
