Please find attached the (unreported) case of Volkswagen v Garcia, heard last week before Justice Birss at first instance. If any Judgment becomes available a further post will ensue.
The Government’s new Intellectual Property Bill has had its first reading in the House of Lords on 9 May 2013 – second reading due on 22 May 2013.
Clause 19 in the attached Bill appears to amend section 22 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, which permits a public body withholding publication in certain circumstances.
Clause 19 in the attached Bill will hopefully govern the circumstances for the release of raw data sets, and this will be kept under review as to whether this is the promised amendment to address concerns about the immediate unfettered disclosure of raw data by Higher Education Institutions.
Please see attached a short Note relating to the short appeal heard in the UK Supreme Court recently. The case concerned unauthorised use of trade secrets related to a patent. This case will be explored further in later blogs.
CK2304NLAvMeltwaterSupremeCourtJudgment
Please see attached a Note with a few useful extracts from the Judgment of Lord Sumption in Public Relations Consultants v Newspaper Licensing Agency Ltd [2013] UK SC 18. The point of appeal has been referred to the Court of Justice of the European Union.
Please find attached a Note relating to the Meltwater decision (temporary downloading of Copright materials from the Internet, due to be handed down in the Supreme Court today.
Please see attached a Note in relation to ‘Confidentiality Clubs’ in Intellectual property disputes.
CK2703ConfidentialityBlogDorchesterPropertyvBNP Paribas
Please see attached a further discussion of the recent Court of Appeal decision related to non-disclosure and non-circumvention agreements, in relation to the disclosure of confidential information.
CK1202PublicRelationsConsultantsvNewpaperLicensingAuthoritySupCt
Please see attached a short note of the appeal currently before the UK Supreme Court regarding the ambit of the section 28A exception to copyright infringement (the making of temporary copies) and when the section 28A exception could be relied upon.
CK3001MontaguevInfoCommissionerLiverpoolJohnMoores
Please see attached the short article relating to Public information requests under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, for information held by a University lecturer as private research, and when it will be ‘held’ by the University (and so disclosable) for the purposes of the 2000 Act.
Exchange of confidential information under a Non-Disclosure Agreement (or Confidentiality Agreement)
In most standard Non-disclosure Agreements (NDAs) the clause relating to the period for which the confidences should be kept between the parties (or third parties) will refer to a definite period of time, for example 5 years.
The period for which confidences are to be kept will run from either the date of the disclosure under the agreement, or from the termination date. The period hit upon is often a matter of instruction from the client, sometimes the client places such importance on the confidential information (invention, trade secrets, design, all manner of commercially or otherwise inherently sensitive information) that they would wish the confidences to be kept, if at all possible, forever.
In the University sector, given that there is a constant commitment to wide dissemination of knowledge or information through academic publication and other channels, shorter time periods of 5 years are often agreed, in light of the fact that so much information by its very nature ends up rapidly in the public domain.
A typical clause for general commercial use, or for research agreements would read:
‘The provisions of this clause [the clause setting out the confidences that should be kept – e.g. a large category including know-how, trade secrets, operations, plans, processes, copyrights etc] shall survive any termination of this agreement for a period of 5 years from termination.’
Some NDAs refer to a window of time, in which the confidences are exchanged, for example for 1 year running from the start date of the agreement, and so the only confidential information caught in the net is that exchanged in a defined period. In such cases, you need to carefully ensure that the confidential information is also (in another clause in the agreement!) to be preserved for an unlimited time, or for the temporal period of 5 years for example.
The above issues are under current review in regard to the precedents in current use. However, simply because the product of Research or information is often aimed to be in the public domain as quickly as possible, and widely disseminated, it does not mean that there are confidences that should be kept and for long periods of time.