eSignature for Agreements

A non-disclosure agreement (NDA) is a legal document between two or more parties that agree not to disclose confidential information regarding their shared business interests, product, partnership details, etc. It’s also called a confidentiality or secrecy agreement or a proprietary information agreement. An NDA can be concluded and signed between two or more entities, a company and an individual, or between individuals only.

Typical examples of a non-disclosure agreement are bank-client confidentiality and doctor-patient confidentiality. NDAs concluded between entities are mutually accepted (also called bilateral or two-way contracts). All parties have shared responsibilities for not communicating any business secrets, proprietary information, or matters of a technological process to third parties. There’s also a one-way (or unilateral) NDA agreement, in which one party obligates another for privacy. Typically, it’s a contract between a company and an employee/contractor who accepts the employer’s requirement of non-dissemination of the company’s sensitive data.

Your confidentiality agreement must meet the same legal requirements as any other contract to be a legally-binding NDA. It must be in writing, transparently stating all terms and conditions, the scope of information provided to third parties, and legal implications for breaching the contract. The subject of the contract and its specific requirements can’t be illegal. All parties must consent to its terms and properly sign the NDA. The law doesn't require signatures on hard copies only. You can easily sign your confidentiality agreement electronically with a legally-binding eSignature solution. First, all parties of the deal must agree to eSign and consent to do business electronically. Use an eSignature platform, like signNow, to complete and sign your NDA online.

Many web resources offer samples of popular documents for download. However, if you need to find a verified template and quickly adjust it to your situation, opting for an eSigning service with a form library is a better choice. You can obtain and sign a confidentiality agreement sample online with signNow, a trustworthy and cutting-edge solution for electronic signatures. Use the platform’s catalog of form templates, upload it to your account, and adapt it to your business circumstances. The service has a built-in document editor that enables you to add smart fields for your parties’ to fill out their personal and contact information, initials, and valid electronic signatures. Parties can choose one of three online agreement signing methods: they can upload pictures of their handwritten signatures, draw them with a stylus, mouse, or touchpad, or simply type in their names to sign an NDA online.

Yes, the law permits using electronic signatures for agreements. According to the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA) and the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act (ESIGN Act), a document can’t be considered invalid because it’s created and signed in electronic form. In other words, electronic signatures have the same legal status and enforceability as handwritten ones. This rule applies in the USA, EU, and many other countries worldwide. signNow is an eSignature platform that complies with industry regulations, providing data security, signers’ authentication, and a detailed audit log. You can sign any agreement contract template online and make your document legally binding with signNow.

Not every symbol created electronically on a document can be considered a valid signature. Drawing your handwritten signature in MS Word or using a graphic editor doesn’t make your autograph enforceable. As stated in the ESIGN Act, it should be “attached to or logically associated” with such a document and placed by a person who intends to sign it. Parties of a contract must consent to make a deal electronically, and there should be a record of that. Therefore, to legally sign an agreement electronically, you need a specialized online tool that meets the laws and requirements for eSignatures. Utilize signNow, a professional, secure eSigning platform that complies with ESIGN, UETA, eIDAS, GDPR, and other leading regulations for electronic signatures. It provides users with complex eSignature workflows, including signature collection and a detailed audit trail of all document actions, making your online agreement legally binding.

A partnership agreement is a legal document that founders of a business compose to specify their contributions, structure their liabilities to the partnership, division of profits and financial losses, and other working relationship issues. This document is complex as it must cover all significant business matters and relations between partners during the whole period of the company’s existence. The US Small Business Administration has created a list of questions and requirements for a partnership contract so that you can draft your own agreement. Like other contracts, this document doesn’t necessarily require only a handwritten signature to be legally binding. You can utilize a professional eSigning tool, like signNow, to fill out, sign your partnership agreements online, and securely send them for eSignature to your business partners. Simply upload your template to the account, open it in the document editor, adjust it to your needs, add fields for your partners to complete, and collect their legally-binding signatures.