What Level of Protection Is Afforded to Confidential Information/Trade Secrets?

The spectrum of legal protection flows from secret business information that is “not so special” (and is therefore given minimal levels of legal protection) to secret business information that is ”very special” (and is given the highest form of legal protection).

Unfortunately, there are no clear rules about what constitutes not-so-special information and very special information.

However, the more sensitive and commercially valuable the secret information is, and the extent to which the company has engaged in measures to guard this secret, the more likely it is that it will be offered greater legal protection.

What this might translate to in practice:

Not-So-Special Information Very Special Information
Not-so-special information may result in a small award of damages for an infringement, but not the ability to stop your competitor from continuing to use and disclose your information. In contrast, if the breach is in relation to very special information, this might result in the granting of a permanent injunction and more significant damages to stop your competitor from using and disclosing your information.
Last modified: Monday, 5 October 2020, 11:41 AM