If you do decide to enter into a joint venture, make sure that your agreement contains confidentiality/nondisclosure provisions. Why? During the course of your joint venture, you'll be sharing information that you do not want known by your competitors or the general public. This includes your customer lists, trade secrets, and other proprietary data that in the hands of others would hurt your business. Although no written agreement can completely protect you from a dishonest JV partner, having confidentiality made part of your collaboration agreement will make it less likely that you'll be injured by the leaking of your information to others. Although you may want to provide for mediation or binding arbitration of most types of disputes that can arise, it is a good idea to have the confidentiality part of your agreement to allow you to get injunctive relief from a court to shut up a JV partner who tries to spill the beans. Of course, your JV partner will probably want the same terms to apply to you. That's reasonable. Regardless, try to minimize the amount of confidential information that you do share with others. Benjamin Franklin was right when he said that three can keep a secret if two of them are dead. Don't take this literally. It does not mean you should kill your JV partner. There will always be a risk that anything you tell a JV partner will be intentionally or accidentally shared with someone who you do not want to have that information. When in doubt, keep it to yourself.
