Information with commercial value because it is not generally known — formulas, production processes, customer lists with pricing, unpublished research — is protected immediately, with no registration, unlike trademarks and patents.
That protection carries a condition: the owner must keep it under reasonable safeguards. Information every employee can reach, sent to a supplier without a confidentiality agreement, or repeated in marketing material, stops being secret and cannot be claimed for afterwards, even where someone has plainly taken it.
This is therefore work done in advance, not work that begins once something has gone wrong.
What keeps information legally confidential
- Identify precisely what is confidential, as a schedule, rather than declaring that everything the company holds is secret.
- Limit access to those who need it, and keep a record of who accessed what and when.
- Put confidentiality agreements in place with staff, contractors and suppliers before information is handed over, not afterwards.
- State in the employment contract that work and information created during employment belongs to the business.
- Mark documents and files as confidential.
- Have an exit procedure: equipment returned, system access revoked, and a written confirmation that nothing has been retained.
Non-competition covenants
A covenant preventing a former employee from joining a competitor is enforceable only so far as its scope, duration and territory are reasonable. A blanket restriction may not be enforced as written. Drafting something that will actually hold is worth more than drafting the widest possible clause.
When information leaks
- Preserve the evidence at once: access logs, what was taken, and when.
- Send notice to stop using it and return it.
- Apply for interim relief to stop further use or disclosure, which matters more than damages — once information is out it cannot be recalled.
- Bring proceedings for damages, and in some cases criminal proceedings.
This page is general information, not advice on your business. Whether information remains legally confidential depends on the safeguards actually in place in each case.