Legal Question in Intellectual Property in Colorado

A friend is being told she is publishing information on a blog that was discovered under the context of an NDA.

1) The NDA is shaky at best - it's a boilerplate NDA, but the "disclosing party" didn't exist as a legal entity at the time the NDA was signed.

2) To my knowledge, all of the information published on the blog:

a) was already made public by other means;

b) was given to her by other parties after she had left the company and was "outside the firewall";

c) does not concern business practices or intellectual property; or

d) is reporting shady consumer practices and/or crimes.

You can see why the aggressor wants to get rid of this blog by any means possible! He has tried underhanded means, and because this has not worked, he is now trying abuse of the legal system and bullying.

Does she need to worry?


Asked on 12/14/11, 7:12 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Nancy Delain Delain Law Office, PLLC

Anyone can sue anyone else at any time for any reason. Thus, if your question is whether or not your friend needs to worry about a lawsuit being filed against her, the answer is a remarkably definitive "maybe."

Should the lawsuit materialize, based solely on the facts you provide, your friend would have to prove that (a) the information had already been disclosed to the public at the time she published it on her blog and (b) the "reporting shady consumer practices and/or crimes" was truthful at the time of publication. As to whether an entity existed when your friend signed an NDA, that may not matter if the purported owner of the entity signed that document as an individual rather than as a representative of the nonexistent company. Most NDAs contain very similar language, and boilerplate is generally just as binding as is customized language.

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Answered on 12/14/11, 7:30 pm


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