Amber Compounding Pharmacy v Lim Suk Ling: Breach of Confidence & Remedies

Amber Compounding Pharmacy Pte Ltd and Amber Laboratories Pte Ltd filed a suit against Priscilla Lim Suk Ling, UrbanRx Compounding Pharmacy Pte Ltd, and others in the General Division of the High Court of Singapore, alleging breach of confidence. The plaintiffs claimed the defendants used confidential information to set up a competing business. The court held that a plaintiff is entitled to plead that it is proceeding on both the wrongful gain interest and the wrongful loss interest in a claim for breach of confidence and therefore claim for both damages under the Coco approach and equitable damages under the I-Admin approach.

1. Case Overview

1.1 Court

General Division of the High Court

1.2 Outcome

A plaintiff is entitled to plead that it is proceeding on both the wrongful gain interest and the wrongful loss interest in a claim for breach of confidence and therefore claim for both damages under the Coco approach and equitable damages under the I-Admin approach.

1.3 Case Type

Intellectual Property

1.4 Judgment Type

Judgment

1.5 Jurisdiction

Singapore

1.6 Description

Plaintiffs claim breach of confidence. Court holds plaintiffs can claim damages for both wrongful gain and wrongful loss interests.

1.7 Decision Date

30 August 2023

2. Parties and Outcomes

Party Name	Role	Type	Outcome	Outcome Type	Counsels
Priscilla Lim Suk Ling	Defendant	Individual	Unsuccessful in Summons	Lost	Pereira George Barnabas of Pereira & Tan LLC Chan Chee Yun Timothy of Pereira & Tan LLC
UrbanRx Compounding Pharmacy Pte Ltd	Defendant	Corporation	Unsuccessful in Summons	Lost	Pereira George Barnabas of Pereira & Tan LLC Chan Chee Yun Timothy of Pereira & Tan LLC
Amber Compounding Pharmacy Pte Ltd	Plaintiff	Corporation	Successful in Summons	Won	Yeo Wei Ying Jolyn of Cairnhill Law LLC Derek Kang Yu Hsien of Cairnhill Law LLC
Amber Laboratories Pte Ltd	Plaintiff	Corporation	Successful in Summons	Won	Yeo Wei Ying Jolyn of Cairnhill Law LLC Derek Kang Yu Hsien of Cairnhill Law LLC
Muhammad ‘Ainul Yaqien Bin Mohamed Zin	Defendant	Individual	Subject to Consent Judgment	Consent
Daniel James Tai Hann	Defendant	Individual	Subject to Consent Judgment	Consent
Tee I-Lin Cheryl Tan Bo Chuan	Defendant	Individual	Subject to Consent Judgment	Consent

3. Judges

Judge Name	Title	Delivered Judgment
Dedar Singh Gill	Judge of the High Court	Yes

4. Counsels

Counsel Name	Organization
Pereira George Barnabas	Pereira & Tan LLC
Chan Chee Yun Timothy	Pereira & Tan LLC
Yeo Wei Ying Jolyn	Cairnhill Law LLC
Derek Kang Yu Hsien	Cairnhill Law LLC

4. Facts

Plaintiffs filed suit against defendants alleging breach of confidence.
Plaintiffs claim defendants copied confidential documents.
Plaintiffs claim defendants used confidential information to set up and run a competing business.
Plaintiffs claim defendants attempted to solicit business from the first plaintiff’s clients.
Plaintiffs claim defendants revealed confidential information to a third party.
First and second defendants admitted to copying and breach of confidence in relation to the plaintiffs' confidential information.

5. Formal Citations

Amber Compounding Pharmacy Pte Ltd and another v Lim Suk Ling Priscilla and others, Suit No 164 of 2018 (Summons No 1589 of 2023), [2023] SGHC 241

6. Timeline

Date	Event
2018-02-14	Plaintiffs filed HC/S 164/2018
2008-03-06	First plaintiff incorporated in Singapore
2017-04-28	Second defendant incorporated in Singapore
2020-09-14	Plaintiffs obtained a consent judgment against the first, second, third, fourth and sixth defendants
2023-05-03	Agreed list of issues was filed for the AD Trial
2023-05-05	Court directed parties to reach an agreement on Issue 11 or file an application
2023-07-12	Judgment reserved
2023-08-31	Judgment

7. Legal Issues

Breach of Confidence
- Outcome: The court held that a plaintiff is entitled to plead that it is proceeding on both the wrongful gain interest and the wrongful loss interest in a claim for breach of confidence and therefore claim for both damages under the Coco approach and equitable damages under the I-Admin approach.
- Category: Substantive
- Related Cases:
  - [2020] 1 SLR 1130
  - [1969] RPC 41

8. Remedies Sought

Damages
Account of Profits

9. Cause of Actions

Breach of Confidence

10. Practice Areas

Intellectual Property
Commercial Litigation

11. Industries

Pharmaceutical

12. Cited Cases

Case Name	Court	Affirmed	Citation	Jurisdiction	Significance
I-Admin (Singapore) Pte Ltd v Hong Ying Ting and others	Court of Appeal	Yes	[2020] 1 SLR 1130	Singapore	Established the wrongful gain and wrongful loss interests in breach of confidence claims.
Coco v A N Clark (Engineers) Ltd	N/A	Yes	[1969] RPC 41	N/A	Established the traditional elements for a successful claim for breach of confidence.
Lim Oon Kuin and others v Rajah & Tann Singapore LLP and another appeal	Court of Appeal	Yes	[2022] 2 SLR 280	Singapore	Clarified the analytical frameworks for wrongful gain and wrongful loss interests.
Shanghai Afute Food and Beverage Management Co Ltd v Tan Swee Meng and others	High Court	Yes	[2023] SGHC 34	Singapore	Discussed the law expounded in I-Admin (CA) and Lim Oon Kuin.
Writers Studio Pte Ltd v Chin Kwok Yung	High Court	Yes	[2022] SGHC 205	Singapore	Discussed the law expounded in I-Admin (CA) and Lim Oon Kuin.

13. Applicable Rules

Rule Name
O 33 r 2 of the Rules of Court (2014 Rev Ed)

14. Applicable Statutes

Statute Name	Jurisdiction
No applicable statutes

15. Key Terms and Keywords

15.1 Key Terms

Breach of confidence
Wrongful gain interest
Wrongful loss interest
Confidential information
Coco approach
I-Admin approach
Equitable damages

15.2 Keywords

Breach of Confidence
Intellectual Property
Damages
Wrongful Gain
Wrongful Loss

17. Areas of Law

Area Name	Relevance Score
Breach of Confidence	95
Evidence Law	5
Contract Law	5

16. Subjects

Intellectual Property
Breach of Confidence