If you are a paranoid, uncommunicative boss who can’t delegate, you may not have much of a business and your employees probably don’t like you, but you get full marks in the confidentiality stakes.

Despite the proliferation of electronic listening devices, which could make spying on your competitors so much more fun, it is more likely that your confidential business information will be taken by your own employees.

To protect themselves employers can put a confidentiality clause in employment agreements. Those employers who have not quite got round to confidentiality clauses will be relieved to know that the Law of Confidentiality imposes an unwritten, implied duty on employees to keep things secret, not only whilst they are employed, but also after leaving employment. One of the most cost-effective methods of protection is to ensure that your employees know of this implied duty.

To decide if information is confidential information there are three questions:

•    Was there a quality of confidentiality about the information?

•    Was it given in circumstances that suggest that it was confidential?

•    Was it used to the detriment of the giver?

Not everything labelled confidential will be treated as such by the courts.

Extract from "Easy IP: How to use the Law to Protect you Money-Making Ideas" by Paul Brennan

©  Paul Brennan 2010. All rights reserved.

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