NOW, THEREFORE, the Parties agree as follows:
1. Either Party may disclose Confidential Information to the other Party in confidence. All items provided by the disclosing Party will be deemed as confidential unless otherwise explained in writing or verbally identified as such. All information shall be treated as proprietary and confidential regardless if the information is disclosed orally or written materials and is or is not marked as such. Regardless of how information is received it will be deemed Confidential Information.
2. When informed of the proprietary and confidential nature of Confidential Information that has been disclosed by the other Party, the receiving Party (“Recipient”) shall, for a period of three (3) years from the date of disclosure, refrain from disclosing such Confidential Information to any contractor or other third party without prior, written approval from the disclosing Party and shall protect such Confidential Information from inadvertent disclosure to a third party using the same care and diligence that the Recipient uses to protect its own proprietary and confidential information, but in no case less than reasonable care. The Recipient shall ensure that each of its employees, officers, directors, or agents who has access to Confidential Information disclosed under this Agreement is informed of its proprietary and confidential nature and is required to abide by the terms of this Agreement. The Recipient of Confidential Information disclosed under this Agreement shall promptly notify the disclosing Party of any disclosure of such Confidential Information in violation of this Agreement or of any subpoena or other legal process requiring production or disclosure of said Confidential Information.
3. All Confidential Information disclosed under this Agreement shall be and remain the property of the disclosing Party and nothing contained in this Agreement shall be construed as granting or conferring any rights to such Confidential Information on the other Party. The Recipient shall honor any request from the disclosing Party to promptly return or destroy all copies of Confidential Information disclosed under this Agreement and all notes related to such Confidential Information. The Parties agree that the disclosing Party will suffer irreparable injury if its Confidential Information is made public, released to a third party, or otherwise disclosed in breach of this Agreement and that the disclosing Party shall be entitled to obtain injunctive relief against a threatened breach or continuation of any such breach and, in the event of such breach, an award of actual and exemplary damages from any court of competent jurisdiction.
4. The terms of this Agreement shall not be construed to limit either Party’s right to build independently or acquire practices without the use of the other Party’s Confidential Information. The disclosing party acknowledges that the Recipient may currently or in the future be developing offices/practices internally, or receiving information from other parties, that is similar to the Confidential Information. Nothing in this Agreement will prohibit the Recipient from developing or having developed for it practices, practice concepts, business systems or techniques that are similar to or compete with the practices, practice concepts, systems or techniques contemplated by or embodied in the Confidential Information, provided that the Recipient does not violate any of its obligations under this Agreement in connection with such development.