Trade Secrets, Confidential Information & Springboard Injunctions
Trade secrets and confidential information are often a business’s most valuable assets — and the most exposed when employees leave, deals collapse or partners turn rival. We act urgently to protect and enforce confidential information, including by securing springboard injunctions that deny wrongdoers the unfair head-start they gained by misusing it. This is a highly specialised area, sitting where confidentiality, employment and commercial litigation meet, and we draw on the firm’s deep intellectual-property bench where needed.
Our Trade Secret & Confidentiality Services
- Protection and enforcement of trade secrets and confidential information
- Springboard injunctions to neutralise an unfair head-start from misuse of confidential information
- Departing-employee, team-move and ‘poaching’ disputes
- Breach-of-confidence claims and enforcement of non-disclosure obligations
- Urgent interim injunctions to prevent use or disclosure of confidential information
- Search, preservation and delivery-up of misappropriated information and devices
- Coordinated strategy with our employment and intellectual-property teams
What Is a Springboard Injunction?
A springboard injunction restrains a person from gaining an unfair competitive head-start — a ‘springboard’ — obtained by misusing another’s confidential information, even where that information may later have entered the public domain. It is a powerful remedy in departing-employee and team-move cases, and obtaining it quickly is often decisive.
Protecting Trade Secrets in India
India does not yet have a dedicated trade-secrets statute. Confidential information is protected through the law of breach of confidence, contractual obligations and equitable principles — which makes well-drafted agreements and swift, well-evidenced injunction applications essential. We help clients both put protections in place and enforce them decisively when they are breached.
Trade Secrets Confidential Information & Springboard Injunctions faq
Often yes. Where a former employee misuses genuinely confidential information, the courts can grant injunctions to restrain its use or disclosure — including a springboard injunction to remove any unfair advantage gained — supported by orders for delivery-up and, where appropriate, damages.
In the absence of a dedicated statute, trade secrets and confidential information are protected through the common-law action for breach of confidence, contractual confidentiality obligations, and equitable remedies including injunctions and damages.