Today I saw a contract that referred to itself throughout as “this CRADA.”
Besides the fact that “CRADA” (standing for “cooperative research and development agreement”) has to be one of the least appealing acronyms, why bother using anything other than “this agreement”? Assuming that the full reference is used in the title and once in the introductory clause, readers don’t have to be reminded at every turn what kind of contract they’re reading. Similarly, nothing is gained by using throughout a contract “this confidentiality agreement” or “this NDA.”
Yes, “CRADA” and “NDA” are shorter than “agreement,” but that economy is more than offset by the alphabet-soup quality of initialisms, not to mention the annoying all-capitals.
