International Update: Recent Decisions by UK Courts Highlight Protection of Confidential and Proprietary Information in Employment Context — Part I

As many employers have experienced, guarding against misuse of confidential and proprietary information by former employees can be a challenge in an increasingly digitalized and globalized marketplace.  For companies with operations in the United Kingdom, recent court decisions provide some helpful guidance on protecting confidential and proprietary information in the international context.

Earlier this year, the relatively-new Supreme Court of the United Kingdom (which has been in operation since only 2009) addressed whether a former employee can be liable for breach of confidence for starting a competitive business with others who, unbeknownst to the former employee, have misused the former employer’s confidential information.  In Vestergaard Frandsen and others v. Bestnet Europe Ltd. and others, [2013] UKSC 31, the Supreme Court held that a former employee cannot be held liable for breach of confidence in such a scenario in the absence of evidence that the former employee was aware of the confidential information or its misuse.

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