
David Særsten Brambani
Partner
Stavanger
Newsletter
by David Brambani
Published:
In its 9 October 2023 judgement, the Borgarting Court of Appeal found three defendants having infringed / contributed to infringement of the plaintiff's trade secrets and database. The court also found that the defendants had acted / contributed to actions contrary to good business practice amongst traders.
The background for the case is classic; the plaintiff's previous employees started a competing company. In competition with the plaintiff, the competing company and its employees used information gained from the plaintiff during the previous employment.
From a practical point of view, employers should note the court's statement regarding the extent of an employer's liability for employees' actions pursuant to Section 2-1 of the Damages Act. The court found that the competing company was liable as employer because the employees' actions did not fall outside of what was reasonable to expect. The court stated that it is not uncommon for employees, who leave a company and then become employees of a competitor, to bring trade secrets into the new employer’s business, in violation of confidentiality and loyalty obligations. According to the judgement, this is a kind of behavior the new employer must expect to happen. Thus, an employer that hires personnel from a competing company should take measures to safeguard against such violations and thereby limit its exposure to claims for damages and costly legal proceedings.
From a legal point of view, the judgment gives us some reminders and pointers on how to interpret the regulations on trade secrets, protection for databases and good business practice amongst traders. Some takeaways from the judgement are:
On the protection of collections of information as trade secrets:
On the protection of databases:
On actions contrary to good business practice amongst traders:
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