Trade secrets — confidentiality, contract and equitable protection
India has no dedicated trade secrets statute - protection relies on contractual confidentiality obligations and the equitable breach-of-confidence doctrine.
Finin2min Summary — in 2 Minutes
India has no dedicated trade secrets statute - protection relies on contractual confidentiality obligations and the equitable breach-of-confidence doctrine.
Official source and legal ownership
What this covers
Unlike patents, trademarks, copyright and designs, trade secrets and confidential business information in India are protected not through a dedicated statute but through a combination of contractual confidentiality obligations (NDAs, employment contract confidentiality clauses) and the equitable breach-of-confidence doctrine developed through case law.
How protection works without a dedicated statute
Cases like John Richard Brady v Chemical Process Equipments established that information shared in confidence for a limited purpose cannot be used or disclosed for another purpose without consent, while American Express Bank v Priya Puri clarified this protects genuine confidential information, not an employee's general skill and knowledge - together these establish the practical boundaries of trade secret protection in the absence of dedicated legislation.
Why it matters
Because there is no trade secrets statute defining specific remedies or a registration system, a business's actual practical protection depends heavily on the strength of its own contractual confidentiality provisions and internal information-security practices - trade secret protection in India is considerably more self-help-dependent than patent or trademark protection.