letter of intent

See a fairly common definition of Letter of Intent (LOI) below.

Definition :

"A letter of intent or LOI is a document outlining an agreement between two or more parties before the agreement is finalized. The concept is similar to the so-called heads of agreement. Such agreements may be Asset Purchase Agreements, Share Purchase Agreements, Joint-Venture Agreements and overall all Agreements which aim at closing a financially large deal.

LOIs resemble written contracts, but are usually not binding on the parties in their entirety. Many LOIs, however, contain provisions that are binding, such as non-disclosure agreements, a covenant to negotiate in good faith, or a "stand-still" or "no-shop" provision promising exclusive rights to negotiate. A LOI may also be interpreted as binding the parties if it too closely resembles a formal contract.

The purposes of an LOI may be:

to clarify the key points of a complex transaction for the convenience of the parties
to declare officially that the parties are currently negotiating, as in a merger or joint venture proposal
to provide safeguards in case a deal collapses during negotiation "



So not an entirely legally binding document as such but can have provisions that are. If it is not an L.O.I. with 3M then I guess there will be no "stand-still" or "no-shop" provision promising exclusive rights to negotiate, as that would close out third parties for the term of the agreement, and would seem innapropriate while 3M is still doing their assessment.
If it is an L.O.I. with 3M it may be a clause they have insisted on for strategic reasons, and could be a primary reason for instigating the L.O.I. in the first place.

Whatever, it's all good and to me this L.O.I. is a big step forward and gives me much more confidence of a positive outcome for the OBJ patch.