Not necessarily, although it is sometimes preferable to start a commercial deal with the Letter of Intent rather than a longer form Agreement of Purchase and Sale, particularly in complex transactions. A Letter of Intent is usually not binding or enforceable against the parties, except for certain provisions such as confidentiality, non-disclosure and restrictions on negotiating with others during a fixed period of time. The purpose of a Letter of Intent is to clarify the key points of a complex transaction for the benefit of the parties and to declare that the parties are officially negotiating on those terms. A Letter of Intent will usually restrict the parties from dealing with others while they are attempting to come to terms with each other. The benefit of a Letter of Intent is that it allows parties to determine if they can reach agreement on business terms before negotiating all of the technical legal ones. As such, it can save time and legal costs on the more complicated provisions of the long-form Agreement of Purchase and Sale if the basic business terms are still being negotiated.