I've been led to believe (through my own corporate lawyer) that NDAs are pretty much useless unless they come with a penalty clause. AFAIK here in Germany the m

I've been led to believe (through my own corporate lawyer) that NDAs are pretty much useless unless they come with a penalty clause. AFAIK here in Germany the maximum penalty is something like 20k EUR. So at the end of the day, they do seem to be pretty much useless, at least in Germany. I think they are something one can forgo altogether, for all intents and purposes. Sure, it is annoying if someone takes a concept from a presentation and creates their own startup, claiming it to be their own invention or such, but that's bound to happen one way or another given the vast diversity of personality types out there. Bottom line is I think it would be beneficial to everyone to abolish this nonsense altogether.