Public domain

NDA Anatomy™ JC’s guide to non-standard confidentiality agreements. For the OneNDA, see the OneNDA Anatomy →Go uptown The OneNDA clause What is Confidential Information? Confidential Information means information that is disclosed: by a party to this Agreement (the Discloser) or on the Discloser’s behalf by its authorised representatives or its Affiliates, to the other party to this Agreement (the Receiver), its Affiliates or Permitted Receivers, and in connection with the Purpose. Affiliates means any: entity that directly or indirectly controls, is controlled by, is under common control with or is otherwise in the same group of entities as a party to this Agreement, or fund or limited partnership that is managed or advised, or whose general partner or manager is managed or advised, by the Receiver or its Affiliate or which the Receiver or its Affiliate controls. Permitted Receivers means the Receiver’s Affiliates and the Receiver’s or its Affiliates’ officers, employees, members, representatives, professional advisors, agents and subcontractors. Confidential Information does not include information that is: in the public domain not by breach of this Agreement, known by the Receiver or its Permitted Receivers at the time of disclosure, lawfully obtained by the Receiver or its Permitted Receivers from a third party other than through a breach of confidence, independently developed by the Receiver, or expressly indicated by the Discloser as not confidential. view template Resources: Confidentiality agreement | Confi — Led Zeppelin style | GDPR | Copyright vs. confidence | OneNDA | Common terms | Certification | Confidential information | Confidentiality obligation | Derived information | Disclosed information | Discloser | Exclusivity | Indemnity | No licence | Non-solicitation | Permitted disclosees | Permitted disclosures | Procure compliance | Purpose | Receiver | Remedies | Reps and warranties | Return of information | Term of confidentiality | Index: Click ᐅ to expand: Confidentiality OneNDA Tell me more Sign up for our newsletter — or just get in touch: for ½ a weekly 🍺 you get to consult JC. Ask about it here.

Public domain
/ˈpʌblɪk dəʊˈmeɪn/ (n.)

WIthout wishing to rip off the Cambridge Dictionary — but hang it, it is in the public domain, at least according to its own definition:

“if information is in the public domain, it is available for everyone to see or know about”

That is the colloquial use: “public domain” is really just a pompous way of saying “public”.

But “public domain” also has a technical, narrower definition, that hails from the law of copyright: information that is “in the public domain” consists of all creative work, which could be protected by intellectual property rights, but which is not, whether because those rights have expired, been forfeited, waived, or for some other reason just don’t apply.

Version one of the OneNDA uses the expression “public domain”.

Experienced hands will not be surprised to hear this is a cue for those who take pleasure from such things, to raise a technical objection. This is too narrow! This means only information that is not protected by patent or copyright is excluded from the confidentiality obligation! Indeed, it makes no commercial sense at all: patent or copyright protection is only really meaningful where information is public: if it is not, it is hard too see how anyone can copy it.