Spoonfeed: The Court of Appeal reviews the law of confidence in Singapore

In a landmark decision released in April (I-Admin (Singapore) Pte Ltd v Hong Ying Ting and others), the Singapore Court of Appeal introduced a new modified approach to breach of confidence claims, moving away from the well-established three part test set out in the English case of Coco v AN Clark which has been well applied in Singapore for the last few decades. 

In the decision, the Court of Appeal set out a new modified approach as set out below:

(a) The Court would first need to consider: (i) whether the information in question possesses the necessary quality of confidentiality; and

(ii) it was “imparted in circumstances importing an obligation of confidence”. In the alternative, such obligation will also be found “where confidential information has been accessed or acquired without a plaintiff’s knowledge or consent”.

(b) Upon the satisfaction of these prerequisites, an action for breach of confidence is presumed.

(c) The burden then shifts to the defendant to “prove that its conscience was unaffected”. Examples provided where the presumption might be rebutted include where the defendant came across the information by accident, was unaware of its confidential nature, or believed there to be a strong public interest in disclosure.

I wrote a brief article on the decision which was published in the well-known IP blog IPKAT - please click here to read the article.