NIPC Law

  Jane Lambert Chancery Division (Mr Justice Rajah)   Illiquidx Ltd v Altana Wealth Ltd and others [2025] EWHC 299 (Ch) (13 Feb 2025) This was a claim for breach of contract and confidence and trade secrets and copyright infringement,    The Parties The claimant was Illiquidx Ltd, ("IX")  a company that describes itself as "an innovative independent financial services boutique specialised in illiquid markets, which caters to institutional, professional and high net worth investors."  Its activities focus on sales, trading and advice,  One of the markets in which it claims expertise is the sovereign debt of Venezuela , a country that has laboured under international sanctions for many years and has recently defaulted on its debt. The first and second defendants are Altana Wealth Ltd ("Altana") and Lee Robinson ("Mr Robinson") Altana's founder, controlling shareholder and chief investment officer. According to its website, Altana seeks uni...

Author  Basher  Eyre  Licence  CC BY-SA 2.0   Source  Wikimedia Commons   Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (HH Judge Melissa Clarke) PSN Recruitments Ltd  v Ludley and another [2023] EWHC 3153 (IPEC) (8 Dec 2023) This was a claim by PSN Recruitment Ltd (trading as Cosmopolitan Recruitment ("Cosmopolitan") against its former employee, Graeme Ludley ("Mr Ludley").   Mr Ludley had emailed to himself particulars of Cosmopolitan's clients. set up a Greenscape Specialist Recruitment Ltd ("Greenscape") as a competing business and told Cosmopolitan's clients that he was still working for the same employer but from a different location and under a different corporate name.  Cosmopolitan sued Mr Ludley and the company for breach of confidence and passing off  in the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court ("IPEC") . Their defence to the breach of confidence claim was that the information was easily obtainable from trade publicatio...

Author ERab123   Licence CC BY-SA 4.0   Source Wikimedia Commons   Jane Lambert Court of Appeal (Sir Andrew McFarlane P, Lord Justice Arnold and Lady Justice Elisabeth Laing) JC Bamford Excavators Ltd v Manitou UK Ltd and another [2023] EWCA Civ 840 (17 July 2023) This is an important case on the law of confidence and trade secrets as well as Patent Court Practice.  In   JC Bamford Excavators Ltd v Manitou UK Ltd and another  [2022] EWHC 1724 (Pat) (4 July 2022) which I discussed in  Patents - J C Bamford Excavators Ltd v Manitou UK Ltd   on 7 March 2023 the defendants, Manitou UK Ltd. and Manitou BF SA ("Manitour"), disclosed information relating to the configuration of the control system of their telehandlers  to a group of nominated lawyers and experts from both parties known as "a confidentiality club ". The reason Manitou limited their disclosure to that group was explained by their solicitor: "Manitou should be entitled to prot...

Jane Lambert Patent Court (Mr Justice Birss)  Unwired Planet International Ltd v Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd and Another [2017] EWHC 3083 (Pat) (30 Nov 2017)  On 5 April 2017 Mr Justice Birss delivered two judgments. One contained the judge's reasoning in full which was seen only by the parties' lawyers while the other was redacted.  I discussed the redacted version in FRAND   8 Oct 2017. The problem with redactions, as Mr Justice Birss observed at paragraph [23] of his judgment in  Unwired Planet International Ltd v Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd and another [2017] EWHC 3083 (Pat) (30 Nov 2017) is that "unless the public can see and understand a judge's reasons they cannot hold the courts to account."  Since different parties to the litigation had requested the removal of different parts of the full judgment, his lordship convened that hearing with the parties' solicitors to give directions about what should be published and what s...