Category Archives: Trade Secret

Copyright Innovation Trade Secret

Trade Secrets Protection and Incentives to Innovate: Scrutinizing Section 91 of The Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019

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We are pleased to bring you a guest post by Sahaja Burde, on the ongoing regulatory efforts surrounding ‘non-personal data’. Sahaja is a 3rd year student at ILS College, Pune. In this post, Sahaja examines the provisions of the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019 dealing with non-personal data and their interplay with copyright and trade secret law in India.   Trade Secrets Protection and Incentives to Innovate: Scrutinizing Section 91 of The Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019 Sahaja Burde Introduction…


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Overlaps in IP Patent Trade Secret

Can Patents and Trade Secrets Co-exist? : Delhi High Court Answers in the Negative

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We’re pleased to bring to you a post by Aditya Gupta on the Delhi High Court’s recent decision on the interplay between trade secrets and patents. Aditya is an attorney at Ira Law. He graduated from National Law University, Jodhpur and then pursued a master’s in law from Harvard Law School. Before co-founding Ira Law, he was part of another law firm for 7 years and then an associate at the chambers of Mr. Amit Sibal. Can Patents and Trade…


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Others Trade Secret

Appreciating the Fundamentals of Trade Secrets Law – I

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I discussed a trade secret case law recently. I wrote that I would discuss some of the fundamental aspects from a comparative law perspective. As a prelude, I can only discuss the broad contours of trade secret protection in a blog post. I am limiting the discussion of this post to fundamentals of trade secret protection and US position. I shall discuss the EU position in a later post. If specific questions are asked, I shall try to answer them….


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Trade Secret

Trade Secret Case Law: Steer Engineering Pvt. Ltd. v. Glaxosmithkline Consumer & Ors.

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This is a case on trade secret / confidential information. The Indian jurisprudence on trade secret law is still at a nascent stage. While discussing this case, I am limiting the scope to the issue of protection of trade secret / confidential information only. Facts This is a commercial appeal filed under Section 13 (1A) of the Commercial Courts Act read with relevant provisions of CPC. The Appellant had earlier unsuccessfully pleaded for an interim injunction at the Court of…


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Copyright Trade Secret

Delhi High Court Once Again Tackles the Issue of IP in Customer Lists – Delivers a Solid Judgment in Favour of Employees

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An issue which keeps popping up in Indian litigation is whether it is possible for employers to restrain former employees from using customer lists after leaving employment. These legal actions are usually based in copyright law or contractual agreements that have clauses on confidentiality and restraints against post-employment competition. In a recent judgment by Justice Endlaw, in the case of Navigators Logistics Ltd v. Kashif Qureshi & Ors. the above issues are decided in favour of former employees in a…


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Trade Secret

SpicyIP Fellowship 2017-18: Cyber Economic Espionage – Is TRIPS the Solution?

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We are glad to bring to you a guest post by our Fellowship applicant Maitreyee Dixit. Maitreyee is a 2nd year student at NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad. This is her first submission for the Fellowship. Cyber Economic Espionage: Is TRIPS The Solution? Maitreyee Dixit Economic espionage has been a hot topic of sorts since the September 2015 agreement was made between USA and China, that called for both the countries to not knowingly conduct or support cyber enabled trade…


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Plant Variety Protection Trade Secret

GM Mustard: Of the Lack of Transparency and ‘Confidentiality’ of Biosafety Data

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The Central Information Commission (CIC) directed the Environment Ministry to release all data relating to the bio-safety of GM Mustard by an order in April following a RTI application filed by Ms. Kavitha Kuruganti (the ‘Appellant’). The application sought information regarding the field trials of GM Mustard, which the Ministry refused to disclose on grounds of confidentiality. The Ministry is yet to comply with the order in question, but on Tuesday released a safety assessment report stating that GM Mustard…


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Others Trade Secret

Epic secrets untold: TCS told?

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Recently, a US jury found Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Tata America International Corp guilty of stealing trade secrets and confidential information from Epic Systems, an American company. The amount of damages, awarded was a whopping $940 million, including $700 million as punitive damage. Epic Systems is a Wisconsin based company and is a leading provider of software to the healthcare industry.  Epic maintains a web portal called the “UserWeb,” which contains information regarding its products, training material and other…


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Overlaps in IP Trade Secret

Trade Secrets and the Right to Information: Thoughts on Ferani Hotels v. State Information Commissioner [Part II]

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In my previous post, I discussed the Bombay HC’s ruling in Ferani Hotels v. State Information Commissioner and Ors., in which the Petitioner attempted (unsuccessfully) to prevent the Bombay Municipal Corporation from disclosing its real estate development plans under an RTI application. As I mentioned there, the Supreme Court has never had to issue a decision on S. 8(1)(d) of the RTI Act, which provides for the protection of trade secrets and other information of commercial confidence from disclosure. The…


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Others Overlaps in IP Trade Secret

Trade Secrets and the Right to Information: Thoughts on Ferani Hotels v. State Information Commissioner [Part I]

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A recent judgement [PDF] from the Bombay High Court has thrown the spotlight on the interplay between IP protection and the Right to Information Act. Over the course of two posts, I’ll summarise the judgement and try to engage with some of the issues that inhabit its penumbra. By their very nature, the values sought to be protected by IP law seem to be at odds with those sought to be protected by the RTI Act. The former is aimed…


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