Facts: Coco created his own design for a moped and shared it with AN Clark for business purposes. AN Clark abandoned the Coco moped, but later created their own Scamp moped. The design of the piston in the engine was by Coco but the same design piston could be ordered online. AN Clark claimed no part of the moped’s design was from the Coco model but Coco took the case to court.
Result: AN Clark won. Not all the elements of the test were satisfied because the same design engine as Coco’s could be attained online.
Issue: Where a person shares information about the design of a moped with a manufacturer with a view to entering into a commercial relationship but no contract is signed, is the manufacturer liable in an action of breach of confidence if he uses that information to construct his own moped?
Held: Manufacturer will be in breach of confidence if he uses information provided to him in confidence but the information is available in the public domain OR a manufacturer will be in breach of confidence if he uses information given to him by another person and the information is of a confidential nature the information was imparted in circumstances leading to an obligation of confidence and the information was used without the person’s consent and to their detriment.
Held (Megarry J): There are three steps for breach of confidence:
The information must be of a confidential nature
The information must have been imparted in circumstances imposing an obligation of confidence.
There must have been an unauthorised use of the information to the detriment of the communicator.