Clarke v Tipping: 18 Apr 1846

The Defendant had bribed the Plaintiff’s agent to make extracts of false entries from the books of the Plaintiff. The Plaintiff did not move for an injunction on the Defendant’s answer; but, on the cause coming on for hearing, it appeared that Clarke had filed another bill in the Rolls Court, and had obtained in that suit an inspection of those books; and therefore the bill was dismissed. But the principle that an agent could not be allowed to communicate the contents of his employer’s books to another person, and that that person could not publish the information so improperly obtained, was directly admitted by the Vice-Chancellor. A person guilty of bribery takes the knowledge he obtains with no better right to use it than the party communicating it; but here there is neither bribery nor fraud.

Judges:

Wigram VC

Citations:

[1846] EngR 548, (1846) 9 Beav 284, (1846) 50 ER 352

Links:

Commonlii

Citing:

See AlsoClarke v Tipping 18-Jan-1842
. .
See AlsoTipping v Clarke 13-Feb-1843
. .

Cited by:

CitedPrince Albert v Strange ChD 8-Feb-1849
The Prince sought to restrain publication of otherwise unpublished private etchings and lists of works by Queen Victoria. The etchings appeared to have been removed surreptitiously from or by one Brown. A personal confidence was claimed.
Held: . .
See AlsoClarke v Tipping 15-Apr-1852
. .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Agency, Intellectual Property

Updated: 05 May 2022; Ref: scu.302443