Trade secrets and confidential information—protection and enforcement


Produced in partnership with Will Smith of Anglo American
Practice notes
In-house

Trade secrets and confidential information—protection and enforcement


Produced in partnership with Will Smith of Anglo American

Practice notes
In-house
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This Practice Note sets out the protection available for trade secrets and Confidential information in a commercial context, in particular in cases where technical information is involved. It outlines the law under the Trade Secrets (Enforcement, etc) Regulations 2018 (Trade Secrets Regulations), SI 2018/597 and its interplay with common law principles of breach of confidence.

This Practice Note also covers:

  1. •

    the way in which breach of confidence interacts with infringement of intellectual property rights and other causes of action

  2. •

    the definitions of ‘confidential information’, ‘trade secrets’ and ‘know-how’ and how these concepts are dealt with in a commercial context

  3. •

    case law relating to secondary liability, common design and knowledge of breach, as well as the position regarding subconscious use, derivative use and reverse engineering, and

  4. •

    the remedies that are available for breach of confidence, including injunctions, springboard injunctions, damages, account of profits, delivery up and destruction

Introduction to the laws protecting confidential information and trade secrets in the UK

Historically, the UK had no statutory regime to address

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Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom
Related legal acts:
Key definition:
Trade Secret definition
What does Trade Secret mean?

A trade secret is information which is not generally known or readily accessible to people within the circles that normally deal with the kind of information in question and has commercial value because it is secret.

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