The Springboard Doctrine

In one line

A person who has obtained information in confidence may not use it as a springboard for activities detrimental to the person who gave it, even after the information has become public, and the restraint lasts for the head start he unfairly gained.

The doctrine stated

The sentence every judgment quotes comes from Roskill J in Cranleigh, taking it from Lord Denning's judgment in Terrapin:

"A person who has obtained information in confidence is not allowed to use it as a springboard for activities detrimental to the person who made the confidential communication, and springboard it remains even when all the features have been published or can be ascertained by actual inspection by any member of the public."

What the sentence does is solve a problem the three elements cannot.

The problem. The first element requires the information not to be public property and public knowledge. So on the face of it, the moment the information becomes public the claim dies. But suppose the confidant used the secret to build a product, and then the product itself, on sale, revealed the secret to anybody who cared to look. On the strict view he would be free from the moment his own product hit the shelves, which is to say the wrong would extinguish the remedy. The springboard doctrine says no: the confidant is still restrained, because his advantage came from the confidence and not from the public source.

Terrapin worked

Facts. Terrapin Ltd. v. Builders' Supply Co. (Hayes) Ltd., [1960] RPC 128, Court of Appeal, England, Lord Evershed MR. Terrapin made portable buildings and had improved its technique with a stressed skin construction giving a flat roof and much lighter units. It gave the defendants information about the construction while the two were negotiating a five-year manufacturing contract. The negotiations broke down. The defendants then marketed a portable building of their own whose brochure showed the same features.

Held. Following Saltman, the defendants could be restrained from using the design of the portable building they had advertised. The court asked two questions: whether the information given by the plaintiff's representative was confidential in the circumstances, and whether the defendants had used it. Both were answered yes, and the case for an injunction was made out.

A point of attribution worth getting right. The famous springboard sentence is usually attributed to Terrapin, and it originates in Roxburgh J's judgment at first instance in that case, but the form in which everyone quotes it, and the form Indian judgments quote, is Roskill J's restatement in Cranleigh. Say "the springboard principle, stated in Terrapin and restated in Cranleigh" and you are safe.