A Review of the Law Relating to the Protection of Copyright and Trade Secrets in Jamaica
Abstract
Copyright protects the intellectual property rights of authors of original works. Trade Secrets are protected by the laws governing the treatment of information divulged subject to a duty of confidentiality. The essence of each is captured in the following: “…copyright is capable of helping to resist invasions of privacy, but the intrusion must take the form of making at least one copy, or of giving a performance in public, or of doing one of the other acts specified as constituting infringement. Coupled with this, there must be a copying of the manner of expression and not merely use of the information contained in the copyright work…Breach of confidence protection resembles copyright in that the information which the defendant seeks to deploy must derive from that which the plaintiff seeks to protect. But confidence protection is not generally tied to particular ways of using the material. It is concerned with the information in substance and not in form, … ” I will begin by setting out a synopsis of the law of copyright and the law of confidence, respectively and then address how these are useful in protecting the information and goodwill of brand building companies.
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