Confidential Information

Privileged communication shared with only a few people for furthering certain
purposes, such as with an attorney for a legal matter, or with a doctor for treatment
of a disease. Receiver of confidential information is generally prohibited from
using it to take advantage of the giver. Also called privileged information

Condition for piece of Information to be Confidential

Piece of information must not be something which is of public property and public knowledge.
(ibid at 215)
Confidentiality of information does not solely depend upon the labor or skills expended in
collecting it .
Example 1: Facts pertaining to a persons private life can be protected although it hardly involves
any labor or skill.
Example 2:Engineering Drawings in Manufacturing and production purposes may be amounted to
breach of confidential relationship if used out of contract.
Example 3: A piece of chemical formula,or a plan, a sketch which involves work done by the
maker of that material even though that material is available to everbody is confidential because
the maker of the document has used his brain and produced a result which can only be produced
by somebody who goes through the same process. [Saltman v Campbell (1948)65 RPC 203 at 211]

Identification of Confidential Information

A ) The information must be the information, the
release of which the owner believes would be
injurious to him or of advantage to his rivals or
others.
B)The owner must believe that the information is
confidential or secret, that it is not already in the
public domain.
It is possible that some or all of his rivals have
already the information,but as long as the owner
believes the information to be confidential he is
entitled to try to protect it.
C)The owners belief under the two previous
headings must be reasonable.

D)The information must be judged in light of

usage and practices of particular industry or
trade concerned.

Any information which satisfies all these

requirements is entitled to protection.

Protection

When an idea or
information is acquired by
person in circumstance
such that it would be a
breach of good faith to
publish the information
,and he has no just cause
or excuse for doing them,
then the court will grant an
injunction against him.

of

Confidential

Information imparted in
confidence (the
information imparted in
confidence to servants and
agents)will be protected.

Court restrains use of such

information if it is in breach
of good faith.

Information

Law on this subject

depends upon the broad
principle of equity that he
who has received
information in confidence
shall not take unfair
advantage of it.

NATURE of Confidential Info

Nature of
Confident
ial
Informati
on

Confiden
ce
implied
in
Contract

Confidence
implied in
circumstanc
es

It is advantageous for a competitor firm to acquire knowledge and information about actions of rival firm. Examples
include :
1)Trade Secrets (A method of production not protected by patent )
2) Business Secret (Financial Arrangements by firm)

Confidential Information
A) Confidence implied in Contract
The law implies confidential matter to be treated in confidential way, as it being one of the implied terms of contract.
Example : When2 parties make a contract under which one of them obtains for the purpose of contract some
confidential matter in direct relation or indirect relation to contract,even if the contract is silent on the matter of
confidence the law shall treat it it as impied term in contract to treat the information in confidential manner.

Note :The information must not be publicly available as public property and public knowledge
must not be available about it.
B) Confidence implied by circumstances
Even when there exists no contractual relationships between plaintiff and defendant,and if the defendant has been
proved to have used confidential information obtained directly/indirectly from the plaintiff without his consent,
explicit or implied,he will be guilty of infringement of plaintiffs rights.

Breach of confidence
3 elements are required if a case of breach of confidence is to succeed

-The information itself must have necessary quality of confidence about it.
-The information must have been imparted in circumstances importing an obligation of
confidence.
-There must be some un-authorized use of that piece of information to the detriment of
the party communicating it. [Coco v Clark [1969] RPC 41 at 47]
Examples for Breach of Confidence

-When a person lends his manuscripts, the other person will be obliged not to publish it.
-A person sitting inform of a painter to get his image painted needs to provide consent for
use of his portrait for all purposes, failure to which leads to Breach of Confidence.
-Guest of a house-party when takes a film of the party and uses it for commercial
purposes may lead to breach of confidence.

Breach of Confidence and Know-How.

Know-How consists of all the technical and commercial information documented in the form of detailed manufacturing data including
specifications and drawings.
Know-How is considered as an Intangible Asset.

Similar to how good-will is; Know-How is also built up by Production or development organization.

Know-How indicates how a skilled man does his job,and is an expression of his individual skill ,experiences.

Breach of Confidence does not apply to know-how learned In the course of employment by a worker.
If an employer seeks to restrain his ex-employee from making use of know-how acquired by him in course of employment,in this scenarios;the
Employer must specifically identify the secret which he claims to be his property and explain to the court if need be,as to how exactly has the
knowledge of that secret come under the possession of employee.
Example :Rolls Royce production and development method finds its material records in all these lists,including Drawings,Manufacturing and
engineering data
Confidential Information which is the property of the ex-employer is protected.

Spring Board Doctrine

A person who has obtained information in confidence is not allowed to use the confidential information as a springboard for
activities detrimental to the person who made the confidential communication with him,even when all the features have been
published or can be ascertained by actual inspection by members of the public.
Possessor of confidential information must be placed under special dis-ability in the field of competition in-order to ensure
that he doesnt not get unfair start ahead.
He must not get a head-start compared to his competitors when he has acquired some information in Confidence and its
usage must be stopped.

He must not get any sort of head-start without paying for it.

Unconscious use of confidential information is also a breach of confidence.

A person even if acquires the confidential information innocently is still refrained from disclosing the information.

Confident
ial
Informati
on

Is an Identifiable separate part of

employers stock of knowledge, which a
man of ordinary honesty would
recognize to be the property of the
employer and not of employee to deal
with it as he likes, is confidential
information.

Chemical Formula.

General
Informati
on
Information acquired by an employee
in ordinary course of his employment
as part of sum total of his experience
with that employer and this piece of
knowledge is carried by his employee
as part of his general stock of
knowledge.

Even when the employee is the

copyright owner of material;if the
subject matter is confidential and a
trade secret the employee cannot
divulge it to others