24 December 2018

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Validity of Non-compete Covenants in India

This image depicts a gate locked with a chain. This image is relevant because this post talks about the validity of Employee's Non-Compete Covenants in India

First Publication Date: 15th December 2010 Agreements that restrain an employee from working with a competitor or carrying out a competing business are called Non-compete agreements. Such agreements, when reasonable are considered to be valid in countries such as USA and UK. However, under the Indian law Non-compete agreements are valid to a very limited extent because agreements in restraint of trade or employment are void under Section 27 of the Indian Contract Act. The section reads as follows:"27. Agreement in restraint of trade void .– Every agreement by which any one is restrained from exercising a lawful profession, trade or...

22 December 2018

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Integrating Secrecy and Exclusivity to gain competitive advantage

Posted by BananaIP Reporter

in Intellectual Property, Trade Secrets

First Publication Date: 10th December 2010 Patents protect inventions by granting exclusive rights for a period of twenty years and trade secrets protect any information having business value as long as the information can be maintained secret. Unlike patents, trade secrets need not be registered and will remain valid based on measures taken by the trade secret holder. The subject matter of trade secrets is very broad and a very small portion of that subject matter relating to inventions overlaps with that of patents. What protection should a company opt for with respect to the overlapping subject matter? As propounded by the...

18 December 2018

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Secrecy Obligations of Employees

Posted by BananaIP Reporter

in Intellectual Property, Trade Secrets

This picture depicts a person keeping a finger on his lips. This image is relevant because this post talks about the secrecy obligations of employees. Click on the image to view full post.

First Publication Date: 7th December 2010 Trade Secrets form an important part of intellectual property owned by most knowledge driven companies. Infact, patents and others are just the tip of the intellectual property ice berg of a company, the rest being trade secrets. Most countries including India do not have legislations protecting trade secrets and the law with respect to their protection emanates from court decisions. Agreements have been recognized by Indian courts to be valid measures to protect secrets. Some of the decisions have been provided hereunder for your reference. Niranjan Shankar Golikari v. The Century Spinning and Mfg. Co. Ltd[i] Mr. Niranjan...

27 October 2018

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Trade Secret Case Law Jurisprudence in India- 1

Posted by BananaIP Reporter

in Intellectual Property, Trade Secrets

The featured image is a screen grab of the first slide of the presentation titled "Trade Secrets and Information Security". This presentation was delivered by Dr. Kalyan C. Kankanala at CISCO, Bangalore

First Publication Date: 21st December 2009 Trade Secret in India is not protected under any specific law but Indian Courts from time to time have recognized that confidential business information, such as customer lists, details of suppliers, pricing policies, product launch time-schedules, management marketing, know-how, designs, drawings, model, specifications, surface data, notes, improvements, technical information and so on may qualify as trade secrets. The jurisprudence that has developed in relation to trade secrets and confidential information is by way of case laws. In light of this, following and successive posts will be devoted in bringing out the case law jurisprudence relating to...

26 October 2018

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Spring Design looses on getting preliminary injunction in its battle against Barnes and Noble

Posted by BananaIP Reporter

in Intellectual Property, Trade Secrets

The image depicts Barnes and Nobles' nook.

First Publication Date: 10th December 2009 As informed in an earlier post on 8th November, 2009, release of "Nook" by Barnes and Noble is clouded over by the allegations made by Spring Design for breach of non disclosure agreement, trade secret misappropriation and unfair competition. In light of the given backdrop, Spring Design filed for a motion of preliminary injunction to prevent Barnes and Noble from marketing and selling its e-reader, "Nook" in the market. Deciding on the matter, Court has denied the motion for a preliminary injunction halting the sale of Barnes and Noble's "Nook". Court, on December 01, 2009 held that...

24 October 2018

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Symantec India Findings indicate lack of measures to protect confidential information by small and medium sized businesses

Posted by BananaIP Reporter

in Intellectual Property, Trade Secrets

The image depicts a 'Confidential' seal.

First Publication Date: 26th November 2009 Recent findings on the basis of a survey recently conducted by Symantec India suggests the unpreparedness of Small and Medium sized Businesses (SMB) in protecting their confidential information and trade secrets. The report provides that though SMB's are well aware of the importance of protection of their confidential information and other trade secrets, the steps taken by them are not sufficient. According to the report, approximately 73% of SMB's feel that the measures taken by them are sufficient for prevanting any disaster situation in case of loss of confidential data and other trade secrets. The survey...

15 October 2018

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Trade Secrets Basics

Posted by BananaIP Reporter

in Intellectual Property, Trade Secrets

First Publication Date: 4th February 2008 What is a trade secret? Trade secret is any information that has independent economic value because of not being known to others and for which reasonable measures have been taken to protect it as a secret. A secret is a trade secret only if it has legal sanctity. Terms like 'confidential information', 'proprietary information', 'undisclosed information' and trade secret have the same meaning from legal perspective. What is a reasonable measure? A measure to protect secrecy of information is considered to be reasonable, if it gives notice about the secret nature of the information and has legal sanctity....

05 April 2017

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Proprietary Data, Trade Secrets and Information Security in India – An Integrated Approach

Posted by Dr. Kalyan C. Kankanala

in Trade Secrets

The featured image shows a wordle with focus on the word information security. To read more, click here.

"Data has the ability to make or break a company." - Dr. Kalyan C. Kankanala In today's information age, Data has emerged as a very important business tool. Among other factors, success of businesses is dependent on possession, management, processing and analysis of data. The relevance of data in business has increased so significantly during the last decade that one report estimates a short supply of close to two hundred thousand (2,00,000) data professionals by the end of 2018 in the United States alone. NASSCOM estimates that India will need about three hundred thousand (3,00,000) data professionals by 2020. A MIT...

05 April 2017

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Trade Secrets and Information Security – Dr. Kalyan C. Kankanala’s presentation at CISCO

Posted by BIP Patent Attorneys

in Trade Secrets

The following presentation titled "Trade Secrets and Information Security" was delivered at CISCO, Bangalore by Dr. Kalyan C. Kankanala, Chief IP Attorney at BananaIP Counsels. The presentation covers the following topics: Trade Secret Reasonable Measures Secret Information NDAs and Confidentiality Clauses Access Controls, etc. Misappropriation Defenses Example case for trade secret misappropriation Social Media and Information Security Recent Cases involving trade secrets and information security ZeniMax v. Oculus Dalmatia v. FoodMatch Waymo v. Uber Goldman Sachs v. Sergey Aleynikov Doe v. Google You may view and access the full presentation here: [slideshare id=74310114&doc=ciscoapril2017-170404063140] About Dr. Kalyan Dr. Kalyan C. Kankanala is currently the Chief IP Attorney...

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