Breach of Confidence Quick Notes

Three Main Elements laid out by Megarry J in Coco v A.N. Clark: 1. The information itself ... must 'have the necessary quality of confidence about it'. 2. The information must have been communicated in circumstances importing an obligation of confidence. 3. There must have been an unauthorised use of the information to the detriment of the party communicating it." Distinguish between the type of information that is in question o Personal information (privacy tests) o Governmental information (issues of public interest?) o Commercial information (look at whether there are other options or underlying contractual remedies) Establish the fact pattern match to cases

Quality of Confidence First Step: the specific info needs to be identified. What is it that possesses the quality of confidence?
- 4 Factors in Thomas Marshall (a) whether the claimant believed that the disclosure of information would be injurious to him or harmful to others; (b) whether the claimant believed that the information was confidential or secret; (relevance of facts representations, correspondence, contract, etc etc) (c) the reasonableness of such belief; and (d) whether there was any relevant industry practice or standard (including cases) -Public/Private knowledge Saltman: must not be something which is public property and public knowledge QB Net v Earnson: must not be common or public knowledge o Degree of actual exposure to the public if only people in the company, or close friends know? o Degree of availability o Place of exposure tests? Samples? Roadshows? Journals?

Factual Scenarios Stratech Systems v Guthrie Cashless ticketing system (automated gentry)