premise: The obligations and restrictions imposed by this Agreement will not apply to any Confidential Information that the receiving party can establish by competent evidence acceptable under applicable law and as deemed appropriate by the competent court:  (a) is already known to the receiving party prior to the disclosing party’s disclosure;  (b) is or becomes publicly available through no fault of the receiving party;  (c) is obtained by the receiving party from a third party; or  (d) is independently developed by the receiving party without use of or reference to any Confidential Information. 