contracts

A Memorandum of Understanding, or MOU as it is commonly called, is a document signed between two or more parties that is intended to memorialize their shared agreement to pursue a certain goal.  MOU vary in formality and can be very similar to formal contracts or simply a casual written summary of an oral agreement.

A non-disclosure agreement (NDA) is an agreement signed between two or more parties to prevent the disclosure of confidential information.  It also can be called a confidentiality agreement (CA), confidential disclosure agreement (CDA), proprietary information agreement (PIA) or secrecy agreement (SA).

In international business deals the two parties may not share a common language.  In these circumstances, the final contract may be translated into multiple languages and there may be up to two or three different language versions of the same agreement.  Therefore, it is important to specify which language is the “official” version of the contract through a Choice of Language clause.