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Breach of Confidence
Breach of Confidence
An unauthorised disclosure of information that should have been kept confidential, such as that disclosed under a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA).
Where an invention has been publicly disclosed in breach of confidence, it may, in some cases, still be possible to successfully obtain a patent for that invention where it can be demonstrated that the disclosure was an "evident abuse" of the confidential information (i.e. that the information was disclosed with the intent to cause harm or the knowledge that it could do so). However, it should be noted that there are strict time limits within which a patent application will need to be filed following such a disclosure (6 months in the UK).
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