Mahesh Vaidya- Legal Advisor

What is a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA)?   When an entrepreneur shifts his customer base from individual customers to corporate customers, this is starting point of this new type of relationship. For an organization to be registered as a “Registered Vendor”, corporate entities will often require the organization to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (commonly known as an “NDA” ) along with various other documents. An NDA can be considered the most celebrated document executed by the majority of new/upcoming entrepreneurs. However, often NDAs are executed by signing “on the dotted lines” without reading or understanding any provisions contained in the document. It is always presented as “a mere document to start a relationship” whereas, on the contrary, it may contain serious complications/implications. An NDA certainly must be signed as a starting point of a relationship to protect and maintain the confidentiality of important confidential/proprietary information of both pa...

Documentation related to various Business Structures As we have seen in my first series of Articles, in the process of evolution of a business, any Entrepreneur’s initial customers are his “friends and relatives” and gradually, as the business grows, the Entrepreneur extends the sale of his goods and services to the “Society”. In this journey, every Entrepreneur executes various documents to cover the legal and commercial aspects of the business transactions. We shall now look into some of these documents which an Entrepreneur normally enters into to cover all such transactions. List of documentation that is normally executed. 1.        Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) 2.        Proposal   3.        Purchase Order (PO)   4.        Agreement 5.        Master Services Agreement (MSA) Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA)...

Business Structures In my previous series, we have done an analysis of the various stages through which a business organization goes through in its evolution journey. Hereafter we shall focus on various types of business structures, industries in which an Entrepreneur operates, and the legal provisions that an Entrepreneur needs to understand and incorporate in contractual documentation to protect his/her interests in the best possible manner. The choice of business structure for any start-up has a long-lasting effect on the way in which it is run, its operations, hiring of employees, renting of business place, tax considerations, and so on. As a start-up entrepreneur, you need to analyze all the above aspects before starting a business. Most Popular Types of Business Structures There are various types of organizations we come across in an economy. Their structures depend upon the nature of the business, the quantum of capital invested, human resources involved, territorial...

  Formal Documentation – Summary Thoughts. As we move forward in the journey of development & growth of any business from “individual-based “customers to “society-based” customers the importance of proper documentation” to make the business deals successful and hassle-free becomes evident. Every business entrepreneur goes through the stages of business growth: Establishment of business Getting market share Sustainability Stability Overall Growth    When the entrepreneur moves from individual to society-based customers, every entrepreneur should also simultaneously aim at moving ahead from society-based customers to corporate customers. Corporate customers play a vital role in the development and growth of the business of the entrepreneur. The amount of business that a corporate customer generates is far more than that generated through a sizable group of individual customers. The advantages of getting Corporate Customers are: An entry into a competitive   market ...

  Formal Documentation – A generic listing of Minimum requirements/ parameters. As seen in the previous Article VII, a specific set of legal terms and conditions need to be added to support commercial terms and conditions in any deal. The nature of the deal itself determines the legal terms and conditions that would be included in the contract. Though the majority of business activities carried out by the entrepreneur are in the area of either providing pure services or trading  (buying ready-made products in bulk and selling them in retail), some of the entrepreneurs may also be involved in manufacturing or development activities. Depending upon the nature of the activity, the legal terms and conditions to be added to the commercial and technical part of any documentation differ. The provisions to be added to cover the following areas:   Scope-related provisions. Any specific special terms & conditions about the scope- if agreed between the parties. Commercial p...

  Formal Documentation – Minimum requirements/ parameters- areas to be covered. As seen in previous Article VI, when the entrepreneur moves from individual to society-based customers, the documents to be exchanged between the parties for any deal should have, in addition to commercial terms and conditions, legal terms and conditions as well to protect the interests of both the parties. The nature and type of these legal terms and conditions, form a part of legal documentation, depending upon the nature of the business for which they are to be prepared. The Indian Contract Act 1872 per se does not enlist or prescribe any “minimum legal terms and conditions” to be part of such documentation.   Nowadays the majority of small-scale and upcoming entrepreneurs are in the “service sector industry” or are involved in “trading activities ” ( buying goods in bulk and selling them in retail units)  where the operational and commercial terms and conditions in their documentation are ...