Rony Abovitz’s tweet about “mousy tech bloggers” and one of its responses made me realize something I was taught way back about NDA and intellectual property. It is summarized well (with my bold emphasis) in the article, “What You Probably Don’t Know About Non Disclosure Agreements”:

“Remember that if you have 99 people sign an NDA and 1 person doesn’t, that person can publish your idea in the Wall Street Journal – and to add insult to injury, when they do, the other NDAs all become invalid since they only apply to confidential information.“

Reed Albergotti with “The Information,” was shown demos previously were not open to the public and as best I am aware did not have an NDA or other confidential agreement. Also David M. Ewalt of Forbes Magazine wrote on Reddit:

“I didn’t sign an NDA, but I agreed not to reveal certain proprietary details”

So when Arghya Sur  (copied above) in his response asked Rony Abivutz to “publicly reveal and demos (sic)”. So I’m left wondering what is and what is not confidential now at Magic Leap? Has Magic Leap inadvertently already done what Arghya Sur requested? Has Magic Leap at least caused some people to be released from some parts of their NDAs?

Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer and my understanding is that this is contract issue based on the laws for the state(s) that governed the NDAs in question. Also, I have not seen ML’s NDAs nor do I know what they cover. There are likely severability clauses meant to limit the damage if there is a breach of some parts.

And it might be even worse. As I remember it, if a company is generally sloppy in their handling and protecting of what they tell people is confidential material, then you can’t enforce your confidential/NDA agreements. The principle is, how can you expect people to know what is “really confidential” from what is “only marked confidential?”

And Rony Abovitz is not just anybody at Magic Leap, he is CEO and and met with the reporters and presumably had some idea as to what they were being shown. This also goes to why you should not tweet about “mouse tech bloggers” if you are a CEO, it makes them ask questions.

I would appreciate if those with expertise  in this area would weigh-in  with your comments. Please don’t give any legal advice to anyone, but rather let people know how you what you were taught about handling NDA material.

BTW

I am always amused and a little shocked when I seen slides at open conferences with “Confidential” market on them. I was taught to NEVER do. If the material is not longer confidential, then remove it from the slides. You probably will not get the “confidential death sentence” for doing it once, but it should not become routine or the company might find all their confidential agreements unenforceable.