Industrial Furnaces v Reaves: 1970

The plaintiffs succeeded at the trial in respect of their claim for misuse of confidential information and other claims, and their entitlement to an injunction and delivery up of material containing confidential information. In argument about the form of the order, counsel for the defendants #suggested that a number of the documents of which delivery up was sought might well contain confidential information of the Defendants which would thus be placed in the hands of the plaintiffs.
Held: Graham J rejected the submission, saying: ‘If a wrongdoer includes material of his own and adds it to material which he has taken from the plaintiffs in my judgment he cannot complain if equity demands that when he has been found out he should deliver up the documents, even though they may now contain information of his own.’

Judges:

Graham J

Citations:

(1970) RPC 605.

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

CitedImerman v Tchenguiz and Others QBD 27-Jul-2009
It was said that the defendant had taken private and confidential material from the claimant’s computer. The claimant sought summary judgement for the return of materials and destruction of copies. The defendant denied that summary judgement was . .
CitedBains and Others v Moore and Others QBD 15-Feb-2017
The claimant anti-asbestos campaigners complained that the defendant investigators had infringed their various rights of privacy. They now sought discovery to support the claim.
Held: the contents of the witness statements do show that it is . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Intellectual Property, Litigation Practice

Updated: 06 May 2022; Ref: scu.582081