Trade Secrets
Perspectives on trade secrets across India and the subcontinent.
Archana Priyadharshini · 26 September 2017
Protect Your IP Before You Disclose It
Disclose an unprotected invention to a joint venture partner and you may spend years proving it was yours — years a startup does not have. Protection before disclosure is the difference between owning an asset and litigating over one.
7 April 2017
The Springboard Doctrine: Protecting Trade Secrets in India
India has no standalone trade secrets statute — protection comes from contract and equity. The springboard doctrine lets a business stop a former insider from using confidential information, even after it becomes public.
4 November 2016
Confidentiality Clause or Restraint of Trade? Where Employers Overreach
Stretch a confidentiality clause to cover information already public and it stops protecting secrets — it becomes a void restraint of trade. What Stellar Information v. Rakesh Kumar teaches about drafting enforceable employee confidentiality terms.
Jayashri Suresh · 22 January 2016
Protecting Business Processes Under Indian IP Law
'We do business differently' — but can you protect a business process in India? There's no dedicated statute. Why patents are barred by Section 3(k), what copyright and trade secrets can (and can't) do, and how contracts fill the gap.
Nikita · 25 February 2015
Are Trade Secret and Confidentiality Agreements Enforceable in India?
India has no trade secrets statute, so enforcement runs through contract and equity. Courts will enforce a confidentiality clause that says what it protects — but not over information already in the public domain, as a travel-agency dispute in the Delhi High Court showed.
Nikita · 12 February 2015
Can Food Recipes Be Protected Under Intellectual Property?
You can't easily own a recipe — but you can protect it. How copyright, trade secrets and even patents apply to food, why Section 3(e) blocks 'mere admixtures', and the surprising Indian patents granted for food processes.
20 January 2015
NDAs That Work: Fairfest Media v. ITE Group
Fairfest shared its financials under an NDA during acquisition talks. The talks failed, and the counterparty bought into a competitor that then ran a rival event with a similar logo. The Calcutta High Court enforced the NDA — and the case shows what these agreements can and cannot do.
Nikita · 8 October 2014
Magic and Intellectual Property: Very Tricky
How do you protect a magic trick without revealing it? A tour of the options in India — patents (unlikely), copyright as a dramatic work, performers' rights (a conjurer is a 'performer' since 2012), and trade secrets — and why secrecy usually wins.
Navarre Roy · 28 September 2014
Five Famous Trade Secrets — and How India Protects Them
Coca-Cola, Maggi, KFC, Hershey's and Krispy Kreme all guard recipes as trade secrets rather than patenting them. Why they choose secrecy — and how, without a dedicated trade-secret statute, India protects them through contracts and confidentiality.
Navarre Roy · 30 August 2013
Ex-Employees Took the Client Database: Why the Company Got an Injunction
Four employees left, set up a rival, and contacted the old firm's clients. The Delhi High Court held a compiled client database is a copyright-protected 'literary work' owned by the employer — and enjoined its use.
Navarre Roy · 30 August 2013
The IP Clause in Employment Agreements
Startups routinely operate on trust, or on an employment agreement downloaded from the internet and drafted for another country's law. The IP clause is a small part of the document and the part that decides who owns what your team builds.