how can we keep our ideas confidential?

To a degree the law of confidentiality is quite straight forward. In essence it protects information which is confidential. To be confidential and to keep information confidential when you pass it to another party the information must not be available to the public and must therefore have the necessary quality of being confidential. The information must also be imparted in circumstances which show the party that is receiving it that it is confidential and this can be because it is received under a non-disclosure agreement or simply because it has got a big stamp on the front of it that says 'confidential'.

Therefore, confidentiality is as much about business hygiene as it is about law.

Some of those conditions apply to the individual option holder, for example one of them is that the individual must work at least 25 hours a week, or if less at least 75% of their working time in the business in question. Some of the conditions relate to the company who is granting the option for example the company mustn’t have more than 250 full time equivalent employees so this is a good one for startups because clearly that box is ticked.

If you want to keep an invention or innovation confidential and keep it secret, then what’s really important is that you show anyone else who may come across it that it is confidential information and that you have good business practice in place to keep this information secure and keep it safe.