Contract Law - How to Maintain Our Confidentiality Obligations?

[Maxim_M]

My company bought a special equipment in 2004, contract has already been already executed. But in the contract we have an article: The Buyer agrees to retain in strict confidence not to disclose any non-published and/or not generally known item of the Know- How and the Technical Documentation to any third party, with the exception of those which are directly involved in the execution of this Contract.

In case of any such permitted transfer an assignee of the third party shall agree in writing to be bound by all secrecy conditions of this Contract. This Contract is a Confidential Document.The Buyer shall use the Know- How and the Technical Documentation and all information contained therein solely for the purpose of the erection, commissioning, start-up, the operation, and the maintenance of the Plant, and for no other purpose whatsoever. Buyer will ensure that any foreign party active in Seller's sphere as competitors to the Seller will have no access to the Plant.

This item shall also remain in force after this Contract expiration regarding each item of Know- How and Technical Documentation, and of all information contained therein as long as the secrecy is presented for Know-How, Technical Documentation and information.

Need your professional opinion on contract law, because now we need upgrade that equipment, for that purpose we need to invite another Company. Law of the contract is German

 

[Sophea]

Hi Maxim_M,

What do you mean by

we need upgrade that equipment, for that purpose we need to invite another Company.

Do you need to get another company to service the equipment? Or to upgrade it for you? If so, I imagine the people from the company who would be working on the machine would be classified as an assignee. Therefore you would have to get them to agree in writing to be bound by all secrecy conditions of this Contract before working on it.