An employee who left a conference business and who ‘borrowed’ his former employer’s database, transferred one of its trading namesto use for his own purposes and made use of some of the same conference speakers (asking them to speak ‘again’ at conferences he was organising, giving the impression that his business was the same business) found the court unimpressed recently.
It allowed an injunction against the ex-employee and accepted claims for breach of confidence, infringement of database rights and passing off (which is where a business represents itself to be another to benefit from the other business’s good name) from his former employer.
The ex-employee, whose website described the Anglia Polytechnic University graduate as a graduate of ‘Cambridge’, faces a substantial, but as yet unquantified, claim for costs and damages.
Intellectual property developed whilst working for someone else belongs to the employer, unless there is an agreement to the contrary.
If you are concerned about misuse of your data or intellectual property assets, contact <<CONTACT DETAILS>> for advice.
Partner Note
First Conferences Services Ltd. and another v Bracchi and another [2009] EWHC 2176 (Ch). See http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Ch/2009/2176.html.