When you submit your entry materials to Bplan, the executive summary judges, mentors, and semi-finalist/finalist judges who review your materials do not sign a non-disclosure agreement ("NDA"). Therefore, you should assume that any information submitted to the Bplan competition is not protected, and plan accordingly. This is customary for Bplan and for similar business plan competitions around the country. This is also the same situation as when giving an initial pitch to a VC. VC's almost never sign NDA's for the initial pitch. Therefore, you need to craft your Bplan materials to present what you can without revealing any information that would compromise your IP protection strategy. This said, the judges and mentors are experienced lawyers, entrepreneurs, and VCs who understand the confidential nature of information presented to them. Outside of judges and mentors, submitted information will be limited to members of the Bplan Executive Committee. All members of the Bplan Exec Committee sign an NDA.
All entrants are required to sign a Participant Agreement stating that their work is original and does not infringe on the intellectual property rights of any other party. We encourage all teams to check to make sure their submission meets this requirement.
