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Law Cases
Intellectual Property Law Cases
Breach of Confidence Cases

Attorney-General v Observer Ltd [1990] 1 AC 109 (HL)

Country:
United Kingdom
By Oxbridge Law Team
Lord Keith
Lord Goff

  • Former senior MI5 agent published his memoirs in various countries outside UK. Numerous references to it were made in UK broadsheets (e.g. Sunday Times started to publish serialisation of book).

  • Attorney-General sought injunctions against broadsheets for breach of confidence.

  • Held:

Lord Keith

  • Even if information has been already published abroad, may still be secret if publishing it in UK would bring it to attention of more people in UK

Lord Goff

  • Information will not be confidential where:

    1. It has entered the public domain

    2. Information enters public domain where it is so generally accessible it can no longer be said to be confidential

    3. It is trivial

  • On facts, information had lost quality of confidence.

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