I-Admin v Hong Ying Ting: Copyright Infringement, Breach of Confidence, and Contract Dispute

I-Admin (Singapore) Pte Ltd sued Hong Ying Ting, Liu Jia Wei, Nice Payroll Pte Ltd, Li Yong, and Tan Kim Liat Errol in the High Court of Singapore, alleging copyright infringement, breach of confidence, breach of contract, conspiracy, and inducing breach of contract. The plaintiff claimed the defendants, former employees and a competitor firm, used its confidential information to set up a rival payroll processing business. The court dismissed the claims, awarding nominal damages for breach of contract against Mr. Hong. The plaintiff has since appealed against the decision.

1. Case Overview

1.1 Court

High Court of the Republic of Singapore

1.2 Outcome

The plaintiff’s claims in the Suits were dismissed, save an award for nominal damages for breach of contract against Mr Hong Ying Ting in Suit 585/2013.

1.3 Case Type

Civil

1.4 Judgment Type

Grounds of Decision

1.5 Jurisdiction

Singapore

1.6 Description

Payroll processing copyright case. Court dismissed claims of copyright infringement, breach of confidence, and conspiracy, awarding nominal damages.

1.7 Decision Date

13 May 2019

2. Parties and Outcomes

Party Name	Role	Type	Outcome	Outcome Type	Counsels
I-Admin (Singapore) Pte Ltd	Plaintiff	Corporation	Claims Dismissed	Lost	Tan I Kwok Lionel of Rajah & Tann Singapore LLP Tng Sheng Rong of Rajah & Tann Singapore LLP Debbie Tang of Rajah & Tann Singapore LLP
Hong Ying Ting	Defendant	Individual	Nominal Damages Awarded	Partial	Leong Yi-Ming of Allen & Gledhill LLP Goh En-Ci Gloria of Allen & Gledhill LLP Clara Tung Yi Lin of Allen & Gledhill LLP Dr Lai Tze Chang Stanley SC of Allen & Gledhill LLP
Liu Jia Wei	Defendant	Individual	Claims Dismissed	Won	Leong Yi-Ming of Allen & Gledhill LLP Goh En-Ci Gloria of Allen & Gledhill LLP Clara Tung Yi Lin of Allen & Gledhill LLP Dr Lai Tze Chang Stanley SC of Allen & Gledhill LLP
Nice Payroll Pte Ltd	Defendant	Corporation	Claims Dismissed	Won	Leong Yi-Ming of Allen & Gledhill LLP Goh En-Ci Gloria of Allen & Gledhill LLP Clara Tung Yi Lin of Allen & Gledhill LLP Dr Lai Tze Chang Stanley SC of Allen & Gledhill LLP
Li Yong	Defendant	Individual	Claims Dismissed	Won	Leong Yi-Ming of Allen & Gledhill LLP Goh En-Ci Gloria of Allen & Gledhill LLP Clara Tung Yi Lin of Allen & Gledhill LLP Dr Lai Tze Chang Stanley SC of Allen & Gledhill LLP
Tan Kim Liat Errol	Defendant	Individual	Claims Dismissed	Won

3. Judges

Judge Name	Title	Delivered Judgment
Aedit Abdullah	Judge	Yes

4. Counsels

Counsel Name	Organization
Tan I Kwok Lionel	Rajah & Tann Singapore LLP
Tng Sheng Rong	Rajah & Tann Singapore LLP
Debbie Tang	Rajah & Tann Singapore LLP
Leong Yi-Ming	Allen & Gledhill LLP
Goh En-Ci Gloria	Allen & Gledhill LLP
Clara Tung Yi Lin	Allen & Gledhill LLP
Dr Lai Tze Chang Stanley SC	Allen & Gledhill LLP

4. Facts

Plaintiff claimed ex-employees conspired to infringe copyright by taking confidential information.
Plaintiff alleged defendants used confidential information to set up a competitor firm.
Mr. Hong and Mr. Liu discussed creating better payroll software, named the “Kikocci Project”.
Mr. Li invested $100,000 in paid-up capital and provided a loan of $900,000 to Nice Payroll.
Plaintiff discovered Nice Payroll's website and suspected its activities.
Plaintiff commenced Suit 585/2013 and applied for an Anton Piller order.
Materials related to the plaintiff were found in Nice Payroll’s possession.

5. Formal Citations

I-Admin (Singapore) Pte Ltd v Hong Ying Ting and others and another suit, Suit Nos 585 of 2013 and 965 of 2015, [2019] SGHC 127

6. Timeline

Date	Event
2000-01-01	Plaintiff began developing the “payAdmin” system.
2002-11-01	Mr. Tan Kim Liat Errol was employed by the plaintiff.
2006-12-01	Mr. Tan Kim Liat Errol left employment of the plaintiff.
2007-06-20	Mr. Hong signed the Information Technology policy.
2009-01-01	Mr. Hong and Mr. Liu shared their frustrations about the plaintiff’s payroll engine.
2009-12-01	Mr. Hong and Mr. Liu incorporated the Kikocci Corporation in the British Virgin Islands.
2010-05-01	Mr. Liu was an operations manager in i-Admin (Shanghai)’s operations department.
2010-05-01	Mr. Liu was moved to i-Admin (Shanghai)’s business development department.
2010-07-01	Mr. Liu was moved to i-Admin (Shanghai)’s implementation department.
2010-08-01	Mr. Hong shared with Mr. Li that he and Mr. Liu were keen on starting a payroll business.
2010-11-01	Mr. Liu stopped coding on the Kikocci Project.
2010-12-01	Mr. Liu managed i-Admin (Shanghai)’s applications department.
2011-02-01	Mr. Tan began working for Olabo.
2011-03-18	Mr. Li and Mr. Hong incorporated Nice Payroll.
2011-04-01	Mr. Liu resigned from i-Admin Shanghai.
2011-06-01	Mr. Tan left the plaintiff’s employment.
2011-06-01	Mr. Tan began working for Nice Payroll.
2011-06-30	Mr. Hong left the plaintiff’s employment.
2011-06-30	Ms. Zaza Shen resigned from i-Admin (Shanghai).
2011-08-05	Ms. Zaza Shen began working for Nice Payroll.
2011-12-01	Cooperation Agreement dated December 2011.
2012-10-01	Mr. Tan left employment of Nice Payroll.
2013-04-01	Mr. Hong accessed the plaintiff’s demonstration platform.
2013-07-02	Plaintiff commenced Suit 585/2013.
2013-07-09	Anton Piller order was granted.
2013-07-17	Anton Piller order was executed at Nice Payroll’s premises.
2014-06-01	The plaintiff obtained a discovery order against the defendants in Suit 585/2013.
2014-07-15	Mr. Hong and Mr. Liu reviewed files that Nice Payroll’s forensic experts had extracted.
2014-07-17	Mr Hong and Mr Liu lodged a police report alleging that the plaintiff had lost client data belonging to HSBC and ADP.
2014-09-04	Mr. Hong informed HSBC and ADP that their data had been placed in Nice Payroll’s possession.
2017-06-22	Trial began.
2018-05-11	Trial concluded.
2018-08-24	Trial concluded.
2018-09-11	Trial concluded.
2019-05-14	Judgment issued.

7. Legal Issues

Copyright Infringement
- Outcome: The court found that copyright generally subsisted in the plaintiff’s materials and that the plaintiff had ownership of the copyright, but did not find that the plaintiff’s copyright was infringed.
- Category: Substantive
- Sub-Issues:
  - Substantial copying
  - Originality of software
  - Access to copyrighted material
Breach of Confidence
- Outcome: The court found that the defendants owed obligations of confidence to the plaintiff, but there was no use of the plaintiff’s confidential information in the relevant sense.
- Category: Substantive
- Sub-Issues:
  - Unauthorized use of confidential information
  - Obligation of confidence
  - Detriment to the communicating party
Breach of Contract
- Outcome: The court found that Mr. Hong breached the non-disclosure agreement, awarding nominal damages. The court found that the 2007 IT Policy did not bind Mr. Hong. The court found that Mr. Hong had not breached any implied duty of good faith or fidelity.
- Category: Substantive
- Sub-Issues:
  - Non-disclosure agreement
  - Implied duty of good faith
  - IT security policy
Tort of Conspiracy by Unlawful Means
- Outcome: The court concluded that conspiracy was not made out as element (a) was not borne out by the evidence.
- Category: Substantive
- Sub-Issues:
  - Combination of persons
  - Intention to cause damage
  - Unlawful acts
Inducement of Breach of Contract
- Outcome: The court dismissed this claim.
- Category: Substantive
- Sub-Issues:
  - Knowledge of contract
  - Intention to procure breach
  - Inducement
  - Breach of contract

8. Remedies Sought

Damages
Delivery up of materials

9. Cause of Actions

Copyright Infringement
Breach of Confidence
Breach of Contract
Conspiracy
Inducing Breach of Contract

10. Practice Areas

Intellectual Property Litigation
Commercial Litigation

11. Industries

Information Technology
Human Resources

12. Cited Cases

Case Name	Court	Affirmed	Citation	Jurisdiction	Significance
Invenpro (M) Sdn Bhd v JCS Automation Pte Ltd and another	High Court	Yes	[2014] 2 SLR 1045	Singapore	Cited regarding the sufficiency of pleadings in copyright claims.
Global Yellow Pages Ltd v Promedia Directories Pte Ltd and another matter	Court of Appeal	Yes	[2017] 2 SLR 185	Singapore	Cited regarding the scope of infringing works covered by a statement of claim and the protection of databases.
Flamelite (S) Pte Ltd and others v Lam Heng Chung and others	High Court	Yes	[2001] 3 SLR(R) 610	Singapore	Cited for the principle that copying can be established through similarity combined with proof of access.
Asia Pacific Publishing Pte Ltd v Pioneers & Leaders (Publishers) Pte Ltd	Court of Appeal	Yes	[2011] 4 SLR 381	Singapore	Cited regarding the requirement of a human author for copyright to subsist and the concept of authorship.
Global Yellow Pages Ltd v Promedia Directories Pte Ltd	High Court	Yes	[2016] 2 SLR 165	Singapore	Cited regarding the substantiality of copying in copyright infringement claims.
Clearlab SG Pte Ltd v Ting Chong Chai and others	High Court	Yes	[2015] 1 SLR 163	Singapore	Cited for the elements of an action in breach of confidence and the standard of proof required.
Centre for Laser and Aesthetic Medicine Pte Ltd v Goh Pui Kiat and others	High Court	Yes	[2017] SGHC 72	Singapore	Cited regarding the attribution of a director's state of mind to a company.
De Maudsley v Palumbo	N/A	Yes	[1996] FSR 447	N/A	Cited regarding the requirement that information must be sufficiently specific and original to be protected as confidential.
Paragon Shipping Pte Ltd v Freight Connect (S) Pte Ltd	High Court	Yes	[2014] 4 SLR 574	Singapore	Cited for the elements of the tort of wrongful interference with trade.
Smile Inc Dental Surgeons Pte Ltd v Lui Andrew Stewart	Court of Appeal	Yes	[2012] 4 SLR 308	Singapore	Cited regarding the implied duty of good faith and fidelity in employment relationships.
Fortuity Pty Ltd v Barcza	N/A	Yes	N/A	N/A	Cited regarding the originality of templates.
Second-Instance Written Civil Judgment of Dispute Over Ownership of Copyright Among Shanghai Enfang Information Technology Co., Ltd., Wang Siping and Taizhou Juyi Information Technology Co., Ltd. (2013) Zhe Tai Zhi Zhong No 1	Intermediate People’s Court	Yes	N/A	China	Cited regarding the requirement for a request or assignment to develop software for copyright ownership.
Second-Instance Written Civil Judgment of Dispute Over Infringement of the Right of Publication Between Zhanyu Enterprise Development (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. and Li Xiaochu (2017) Hu 73 Min Zhong No 3	Shanghai Intellectual Property Court	Yes	N/A	China	Cited regarding the interpretation of 'material and technical resources' in copyright law.

13. Applicable Rules

Rule Name
No applicable rules

14. Applicable Statutes

Statute Name	Jurisdiction
Copyright Act (Cap 63, 2006 Rev Ed)	Singapore
Regulation on Computers Software Protection (2013 Revision) (Order No 632 of the State Council)	China
Copyright Law of the People’s Republic of China (2010 Amendment)	China
Regulation for the Implementation of the Copyright Law of the People’s Republic of China (2013 Revision) (Order No 633 of the State Council)	China

15. Key Terms and Keywords

15.1 Key Terms

Payroll processing
Copyright infringement
Breach of confidence
Kikocci Project
PayAdmin system
Source code
Database structures
Anton Piller order
Nominal damages
IT Policy

15.2 Keywords

copyright
breach of confidence
contract
payroll
software
singapore
high court

17. Areas of Law

Area Name	Relevance Score
Breach of Confidence	80
Copyrights	75
Breach of Contract	70
Conspiracy by Unlawful Means	65
Inducement of Breach of Contract	60
Torts	50
Contract Law	40

16. Subjects

Copyright
Contract Law
Tort
Employment Law