Any information, formula, pattern or device that is used in a person’s business and that gives that person an opportunity to derive an advantage over other persons who do not know or use it. It is different from general skill and knowledge which every employee can take with him when he leaves. An employee must maintain the confidentiality of trade secrets learnt during employment, even after the employee has left that employment: Faccenda Chicken Ltd v Fowler [1987] 1 Ch 117, [1986] 1 All ER 617 (CA). In order to determine whether information is a trade secret or equivalent to a trade secret it is necessary to have regard to (a) the nature of the employment, for example, whether the status of the employee was such that he regularly handled confidential information and recognised it as such or whether the information was only handled by a restricted number of employees; (b) the nature of the information itself; (c) whether the employer had stressed the confidentiality of the information to the employee; (d) whether the relevant information could easily be isolated from other non-confidential information which was part of the same package of information; and (e) whether additional protection should be afforded to an employer where the former employee is not seeking to earn his living by making use of the body of skill, knowledge and experience which he has acquired in the course of his career, but is merely selling to a third party information which he acquired in confidence in the course of his former employment: Faccenda Chicken Ltd v Fowler, supra. Trade secret includes not only secret formulae for the manufacture of products but also in an appropriate case, the names of customers and the goods which they buy. Plans for the development of new products, and for the discontinuance of existing products, are likely to qualify as trade secrets or as confidential information which can be protected: Lansing Linde Ltd v Kerr [1991] 1 All ER 418, 1 WLR 251; Oriental Machinery Ltd v Choi Kin On [2003] 3 HKC 398. See also Confidential information; Restraint of trade.
指任何在某人業務上使用，並可提供予該人與其他不知悉或使用的人相比可取得利益機會的資料、方程式、模式或方法。商業秘密與任何僱員在離職時可隨他／她而去的一般技能及知識不同。任何僱員必須對在受僱工作期間所知悉的商業秘密保密，即使已離職亦然： Faccenda Chicken Ltd v Fowler [1987] 1 Ch 117, [1986] 1 All ER 617（英國上訴法院）。為了裁定有關的資料是否商業秘密或等同商業秘密，須顧及下列的因素 (a)有關受僱工作的性質，例如僱員的職位是否須慣常地處理機密資料，並且獲予以承認如此，或有關的資料只由若干限定數目的僱員處理； (b)有關資料本身的性質； (c)有關的僱主是否已向其僱員強調資料的保密性；(d)有關的資料是否可容易地與其他屬於相同組件部分但並非保密性質的資料分隔；及 (e)如前任僱員並非為了謀生而使用他／她在其受僱期間獲得的技巧、知識及經驗，而僅僅是為了售賣予第三方他／她在其前任受僱工作的過程中在機密情況下獲得的資料，則僱主是否應提供額外的保障：Faccenda Chicken Ltd v Fowler, 見上文。商業秘密不僅包括製造產品的秘密方程式，亦在適當的情況下，包括顧客名稱及他們購買的貨物。發展新產品及停止現有產品的計劃相當有可能構成可受保障的商業秘密或機密資料：Lansing Linde Ltd v Kerr [1991] 1 All ER 418, 1 WLR 251; Oriental Machinery Ltd v Choi Kin On [2003] 3 HKC 398。另見 Confidential information; Restraint of trade。

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