Article
No Trade Secret protection over patented know-how
By Aditya Kaushik
A Single Judge of the Delhi High Court recently examined whether trade secret protection can be granted to know-how with respect to a particular invention that has been patented outside India. The Court held that the Defendants cannot be said to be committing passing off with respect to the know-how of the Plaintiff no.1 passed to the Defendants since know-how/trade secret/confidential information is not a ‘property’ and no relief in rem can be claimed with respect to it. It was also held that such know-how of the Plaintiffs with respect to a formulation could not be protected as a Trade Secret since the same was already in the public domain as a patent could not have been granted without disclosure of the so called ‘know-how’. According to the author of the article in this issue of IPR Amicus, this case also shows that information/know-how associated with a patented invention automatically enters the public domain on patent being granted and post its expiry can be used by all and therefore, cannot be termed as confidential...
Ratio decidendi
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- Trademarks – Prior use, effect of not voluminous sales; Descriptive nature of mark ‘No Turn’ – Delhi High Court
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