Confidential Information: Hedgehog v Hauser
I n the Hedgehog Golf Company Ltd v Hauser [2011] EWHC 689 (Ch) (23 March 2011), Mr. Justice Newey granted the claimant Hedgehog a perpetual injunction from properly disclosing confidential information. in interlocutory proceedings "confidential information" had been defined as "confidential information relating to patent number 1625827 and all other research activities, inventions, secret processes, designs, formulae and product lines". Now patents and confidentiality are opposites - like oil and water, north and south, chalk and cheese, Lancashire and Yorkshire, cat and dog and so on. If you have invented a new product or process you can either "disclose the invention in a manner which is clear enough and complete enough for the invention to be performed by a person skilled in the art" in the hope of obtaining a 20 year monopoly known as a patent , or you can keep mum and rely on the law of confidence to prevent anyone to whom you may have disclosed ...