Breach of Confidence:

Question: Can Mole Legal Services help if my confidential business recipes or processes were used without permission in Ontario?

Answer: Mole Legal Services helps in Ontario with breach of confidence claims tied to misused confidential information, where the information had a necessary quality of confidence, was shared in circumstances importing an obligation of confidence, and was then misused to your detriment under the Lac Minerals framework in Lac Minerals Ltd. v. International Corona Resources Ltd., [1989] 2 S.C.R. 574.  If you share a licensing or operational recipe, software, system, or process and it later gets used without authorization, a paralegal can help you document the confidentiality context, preserve evidence, and pursue practical next steps for paralegal and property management matters.  Call (647) 709-5157 to discuss your situation and book a FREE 1/4 hour consultation today.

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Misused Business Secrets

The success of a business may rely heavily upon secret recipes, proprietary software, unique systems, and customized processes; and accordingly, information relating to these key aspects may be highly valued with misuse of such confidential information quite harmful.  The field of tort law includes a cause of action, meaning right to bring a lawsuit, known as breach of confidence which relates to the improper use of information by a person or other business with whom the confidential information was previously shared. Interestingly, where breach of confidence involves information that was previously shared, the wrongfulness arises from improper use of the information rather than theft of the information.

Note: Please contact Mole Legal Services by phone at: (647) 709-5157 to discuss any specific questions that you may have.

The Law

As per the case of Lac Minerals Ltd. v. International Corona Resources Ltd., [1989] 2 S.C.R. 574, a Supreme Court decision, the elements that must be proven within a breach of confidence case are:

• The information conveyed was confidential;
• The information was communicated in confidence; and
• The information was misused by the party to whom it was communicated.

Specifically, per Lac Minerals Ltd., the Supreme Court said:

As a particularly interesting example case, Cadbury Schweppes Inc. v. FBI Foods Ltd., [1999] 1 S.C.R. 142 involved the licensing of the recipe for Clamato juice by Duffy-Mott (a company later acquired by Cadbury Schweppes Inc.) to Caesar Canning who then contracted production to FBI Foods Ltd.  After Cadbury Schweppes acquired Duffy-Mott, Caesar Canning was notified of termination of the licensing agreement; however, FBI, who later acquired assets of Caesar Canning, made use of the recipe despite a lack of authorization to do so.

Conclusion

Improper use of secretive information may constitute as the tort of breach of confidence where information was confidential, information was communicated within a confidential context, and the information was then misused by the party that received the communication.