Jane a microbiologist, wanted to pursue his dream of having his own distilleries, with support of family and friends, he struck out on his own to establish a microbrewery, Smokey Mountain Brews, in a college town. Over t

The best way to protect his Intellectual Property Right is to maintain the information as a trade secret. Though, there is no specific legislation in India to protect trade secrets and confidential information. Nevertheless, Indian courts have upheld trade secret protection. The Delhi High Court in American Express Bank Ltd. v. PriyaPuri, [(2006) HI LLJ 540 (Del)] defined trade secret as formulae, technical know-how or a method of business adopted by an employer which is unknown to others and such information has reasonable impact on organizational expansion and economic interests. Indian courts have approached trade secrets protection on the basis of principles of equity, action of breach of confidence and contractual obligations. On the issue of trade secrets the Learned Judge observes, It is also to be added that a trade secret is some protected and confidential information which the employee has acquired in the course of his employment and which should not reach others in the interest of the employer. However, routine day-to-day affairs of employer which are in the knowledge of many and are commonly known to others cannot be called trade secrets. In this case, the central issues were with respect to breach of confidentiality and disclosure of trade secrets. The defendant was given the responsibility of supervising the Wealth Management Division of the plaintiff (the employers) and was required to act in accordance with the code of conduct for all employees. The defendant was not allowed to engage in activities, which conflicted with the plaintiff's interest. Additionally, during the defendant's course of employment, all confidential information, like customer records and information, was to be protected from the society and the competitors. The defendant gave her resignation letter to the Director of the Wealth Management Department. It was soon discovered that the defendant was in the process of joining the competitor firm. It was also found that the defendant had taken advantage of her position and had acquired a comprehensive list of all customer information and investment related data. The plaintiff, being a reputed bank, filed a suit for injunction against the defendant restricting her not to release any confidential information and trade secrets related to the transactions as they have a duty of confidentiality to their customers. It was contended by the plaintiff's that even though the confidential information is not in any document, it existed in the mind of the defendant. Hence, this existent, intangible threat was sufficient enough to prevent her from disclosing it. On the other hand, the defendant asserted that customer details like their phone numbers and addresses cannot come under the ambit of confidential information or trade secrets. The reason being that the same were common knowledge and could be easily accessed as they were in the public domain. However, the court held that "trade secrets are acquired over a period of time and are the formulae, technical know-how or a peculiar mode or method of business adopted by an employer which is unknown to others...." Here the defendant had acquired all the information and data during her course of employment. Trade secrets do not cover the knowledge which is attained through daily operations of the business. The court further stated that the defendant couldn't be prohibited from changing her job as it helps in overall development. Article 1(2) of the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement), states that intellectual property shall include protection of undisclosed information. Article 39 of the TRIPS Agreement states that in the course of ensuring effective protection against unfair competition as provided in Article 10bis of the Paris Convention, with respect to information which is (a) a secret not generally known or readily accessible, (b) has commercial value by virtue of secrecy, and (c) has been subjected to reasonable steps for ensuring its secrecy.