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ARTICLE · 12 AUGUST 2024

Trade Secrets Revisited

ENS
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Trade secrets fall within the scope of intellectual property ("IP") law. Trod Lehong, a South African patent attorney who is the Head of the Legislative, Policy and Technology Advice Section at the World Intellectual Property Organisation ("WIPO")

South AfricaIntellectual Property
Janine Thomas
Janine Thomas
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'The conduct of a rival trader who obtains and, well knowing the position, uses the information to advance his own business interests and activities, amounts to a deliberate misappropriation and filching of the products of another's skill and labour. Such conduct must, in my view, be regarded as dishonest and as constituting a fraud upon the compiler of the information.' These were the words of Judge Corbett, in the well-known South African case of Dun and Bradstreet (Pty) Ltd v SA Merchants Combined Credit Bureau (Cape)). The judgment was handed down many years ago, in an age when people still used expressions like 'well-knowing', and words like 'misappropriation' and 'filching'.

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