Sign an NDA electronically

Can an NDA be signed electronically?

Yes. An NDA is an ordinary contract with no form requirement, and under article 25.1 of the eIDAS regulation (910/2014) an electronic signature may not be denied legal effect solely because it is electronic.

The NDA is usually the first document in a deal and the one most often left unsigned. The investor wants the numbers on Wednesday, the supplier needs the drawings tomorrow, and the agreement sits in an email thread where nobody remembers who replied last.

A link fixes the tempo. The person signing needs neither a printer nor an account, and you can see in plain language when the agreement was opened and when it was signed.

Why does the date of the NDA matter?

Because protection for trade secrets rests on what you did before the leak, not after. Under section 2 of the Swedish Trade Secrets Act (2018:558) information counts as a trade secret only if the holder has taken reasonable steps to keep it secret.

An NDA signed before the information changed hands is such a step. An NDA that was sent but never came back is not.

That makes the timestamp more than a detail. TRUE Sign records every event on the document, from sending to the last signature, and seals the PDF with a SHA 256 fingerprint written to a blockchain.

How do you send an NDA for signing?

Upload the agreement, add the other party, place the signature fields and send. They open a personal link and sign on any device.

1. Upload the NDA

   Your template or theirs, as a PDF.

2. Add the parties

   Name and email for everyone who signs.

3. Place the fields

   Signature, date and any field for the company name.

4. Send

   Each party gets a personal link. No account, no app.

5. Sealed

   The agreement is sealed once the last party signs and everyone receives the same PDF.

How large is the damage when trade secrets leak?

The European Commission puts the cost of cyber theft of trade secrets in the EU at an estimated 60 billion euro, citing the study The scale and impact of industrial espionage and theft of trade secrets through cyber from December 2018.

Behind that figure sits one common rulebook. Directive (EU) 2016/943 was adopted on 8 June 2016 and had to be implemented across the member states by 9 June 2018. Sweden did it through the Trade Secrets Act, in force since 1 July 2018.

The law gives a right to both injunctions and damages. Anyone bringing such a claim has to show which information was protected, against whom, and from which day.

What does an NDA not cover?

Experience and skills an employee acquires in the ordinary course of their work are not trade secrets under section 2 of the Swedish Trade Secrets Act. Neither is information about crime or other serious misconduct.

An NDA that tries to cover everything a person learned on the job protects less than one that names what is secret. Write out which information is covered, how long the duty of confidence runs, and what follows from a breach.

If the other party will also do work for you, that belongs in the consulting agreement. If they are being hired, the terms go in the employment agreement.

What does it cost to sign an NDA electronically?

The first three contracts are free. After that Core is 90 EUR per year. Business costs 180 EUR per user per year.

Verification is free for anyone, including the other party. See pricing or send your first NDA.