Prosyscor Ltd v Netsweeper Inc & Ors [2019] EWHC 1302 (IPEC)
Prosyscor claimed to be entitled to an international patent application and national and regional applications derived from it. The invention claimed was a method of discriminating between requests to access a website so as to selectively block access to content on the internet. It was common ground that Prosyscor’s director (who had assigned whatever rights he owned to Prosyscor) had contributed to the devising of the inventions whilst he was an employee of Netsweeper. The primary question for the court was whether he did so in the course of his normal duties as an employee. The court held that he did. The work in question fell within the scope of the duties set out in his written employment contract and the court’s conclusion was supported by his posting of the inventive concept on Netsweeper’s intranet. Therefore, Netsweeper was entitled to the invention pursuant to s. 39 of the Patents Act 1977 and Prosyscor’s entitlement claim failed.
Prosyscor’s claim for breach of a contractual duty of confidence also failed. The only information that could have been disclosed to Netsweeper under the confidentiality agreement relied on was the information that Prosyscor’s software system worked. While in theory this could amount to confidential information, in this case it had not been shown that either party regarded this as such or that a reasonable person in their shoes would have done so. Even if had been, the court was not satisfied that Netsweeper used this information in breach of confidence.
Hugo Cuddigan QC and Chris Aikens appeared for the successful defendants.