Breach of Confidence:

Question:How can a paralegal help me if someone misused my business secret recipe or confidential process in Ontario?

Answer:If your confidential recipe, proprietary software, or other business process was shared in confidence and then used without permission, a paralegal at Civil Litigations Paralegal Services can help you assess whether your facts fit a breach of confidence claim (information must be confidential, communicated in confidence, and misused) and outline practical next steps for documenting misuse and preparing a civil demand or lawsuit strategy in Ontario.   You can reach Civil Litigations Paralegal Services at (416) 229-1479 to discuss what happened, what information was disclosed, and what damage you are seeing so you can move quickly and protect your business.  

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Misused Business Secrets

In business, the product recipes, proprietary software, systems and processes, among many other things, may be highly valuable and the misuse of such confidential information may result in considerable harm. 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 Civil Litigations Paralegal Services by phone at: (416) 229-1479 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.