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It is critical that you protect any confidential information you may have. The concept of legal confidentiality is a body of law developed by the courts to protect relationships of confidence and the information disclosed in such relationships.^[1] However, confidentiality only arises when three essential conditions are met:^[2]

• The information is imparted in a relationship of confidence. This relationship has to meet the necessary character of ‘confidentiality' which will be recognised by the courts;
• There is a relationship of confidence between the person imparting the information and the person receiving the information;
• The unauthorised use or dissemination of the information has caused, or would cause, damage to the recipient.

Examples of information which have been recognised as being legally confidential include:

• Drawings of tools or equipment used in manufacturing;
• Business proposals;
• Designs of components;
• Business reports;
• Tribal secrets;
• Customer lists and price lists;
• Personal information; and
• Marketing strategies.

There are a few basic steps that can be followed to increase the likelihood of a court recognising information as confidential, including:

• Clearly marking all documents containing the information ‘confidential'.
• Treat the information as confidential by restricting employee access to the information to ‘a needs only' basis.
• Treat the information as confidential even at the point of destruction, by providing locked disposals bins for the disposal of any confidential information; and
• Require all that have access to the information to sign a written confidentiality agreement.

For further information on how to protect confidential information as well as how to deal with infringements, visit the IP Toolbox.

^{[1] IP Toolbox
[2] Ibid}