Preliminary Agreements in Joint Ventures

Summary

This practice note discusses preliminary agreements in joint ventures, including letters of intent and confidentiality agreements. Parties to a joint venture often use letters of intent (or term sheets, or memorandum of understanding) to establish a common understanding of the basic terms of the transaction and to facilitate negotiations. The parties will also likely want to enter into a confidentiality agreement to ensure that sensitive, proprietary information exchanged over the course of negotiations is not misused or disclosed to other parties.