is an Intellectual Property Associate at Bird & Bird. Will works across a range of contentious intellectual property matters, principally concerning patents, copyright and confidential information. He has recently been involved in coordinating pan-European patent revocation strategies for clients in the life sciences sector.
Will has also worked on a variety of non-contentious intellectual property matters including licensing agreements and due diligence both in the context of corporate sales and as part of detailed internal intellectual property audits.
For more information or to contact Will, please visit his Firm Profile Page.
Generally, a breach of confidence under English law does not give rise to criminal liability (and the recently implemented Trade Secrets Directive only addresses civil remedies for misappropriation of trade secrets). Sometimes the conduct giving rise to the breach may constitute an offense in its own right (for example an offense under the Computer Misuse Act 1990) but in the absence of such a scenario sanctions will be limited to inter partes remedies. However, as recently seen, if an order for inter partes relief is breached, criminal sanctions may still be imposed following a finding of contempt of court.