Amway Corporation v Eurway International Ltd: ChD 1974

The subject matter of a claim in confidence must be ‘information’, and that information must be clear and identifiable as being confidential.
Brightman J said: ‘I asked the plaintiffs’ counsel if he could point in his literature to some particular piece of information which he said was confidential and which he claimed the defendants were wrongly using. He told me that he pointed to nothing in issue here but to the entirety of the plaintiffs’ documentary material which is in evidence.
It seems to me that a claim for abuse of confidential information cannot really be dealt with in that way. If I made an order restraining the defendants from using for their own purposes any of the documentary material contained in the plaintiffs’ business literature, but did not identify the particular information that the defendants are not to impart, they would be placed in a most embarrassing situation. I do not know how they could decide what business methods, literature and paperwork to avoid using in order to keep clear of contempt of court, and I think that that is an insuperable difficulty in the plaintiffs’ claim under this head.’

Judges:

Brightman J

Citations:

[1974] RPC 82

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

CitedStarbucks (HK) Ltd and Another v British Sky Broadcasting Group Plc and Others SC 13-May-2015
The court was asked whether, as the appellants contended, a claimant who is seeking to maintain an action in passing off need only establish a reputation among a significant section of the public within the jurisdiction, or whether, as the courts . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Intellectual Property

Updated: 03 April 2022; Ref: scu.566009