How can an employer protect valuable information from being used by an ex-employee? In the absence of an express restrictive covenant to prevent the disclosure of trade secrets this can be extremely difficult, largely due to uncertainty as to what exactly is confidential information. The nature and scope of confidentiality clauses in a contract of employment has once again been the source of debate in a recent High Court decision.
The most significant case in this area is the Faccenda Chicken case (Faccenda Chicken Ltd v Fowler). Ex-employees of the chicken factory set up their own rival business and used commercially sensitive information acquired during their employment with the chicken factory. The Court of Appeal did not consider that such information amounted to a trade secret and set out guidelines.
