copyright england-and-wales confidentiality
How to send a document restricting its spread?
<p>I have a personal project I am working on and I wrote a detailed presentation of it, where I describe the internal mechanisms in a certain detail. I do not know how/if I will license it in the future, yet; it may go open source or stay closed.</p>
<p>Is there a way to send this presentation to a company with my CV, for employment reasons, legally forcing the company to use my document to evaluate my profile only, without giving it the right to use/store it for any other purpose?</p>
<p>I already put a copyright notice, but I think that may not be enough.</p>
<p>Note: I am based in England.</p>

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<p>How to send a document restricting its spread?</p>
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<p>In theory you could have the company sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) prior to sharing the details of your project. However, your chances of enforcing the NDA seem negligible except maybe for <a href="https://law.stackexchange.com/questions/65331/how-to-send-a-document-restricting-its-spread/65334#65334">George White's suggestion</a> about a patent application. It is otherwise in your best interest to think of another way of showcasing your skills set.</p>
<p>Assuming that the company signs your NDA, you have no <em>realistic</em> way to prevent the company from misappropriating (i.e., stealing) your idea(s). You will have no access to the company's systems to ensure that it has deleted all copies and records that could result in unauthorized disclosure.</p>
<p>Even if you find out that the company misappropriated your information, it could be too late because the statute of limitations expired, and/or too costly --not just in terms of money-- to bring court proceedings for misappropriation.</p>

<p>Instead of just sending it you could send a non-confidential overview and ask them to sign an NDA before seeing the details. Or, if it is potentially patentable subject mater you could file the document, as is, with the USPTO as a provisional patent application. Very inexpensive for an individual.</p>
