I-Admin (Singapore) Pte Ltd v Hong Ying Ting
[2020] SGCA 32
respondent’s] software system and business operations”. It is also telling that
the Judge examined the question of copyright infringement through this lens.
Addressing arguments on the Category 1 materials, the Judge observed that the
appellant “only submitted that two main aspects of its software were
substantially reproduced as part of [the third respondent’s] software” [emphasis
added] (GD at [52]). He distinguished this from the general utilisation of the
appellant’s materials, which was considered as part of the breach of confidence
claim.
34
It was acknowledged before us that nowhere in the appellant’s closing
submissions was relief sought purely on the basis of mere possession and
circulation. Nevertheless, Mr Lee sought to persuade us that the appellant
should not be precluded from advancing such a case because the facts relevant
to this lower level claim of infringement were fully canvassed in the trial below.
Nexia’s forensic evidence showed that the respondents had copied and were in
possession of the appellant’s materials. More significantly, this fact was
admitted by the respondents in their pleadings. A complete action in copyright,
premised on the mere taking of the appellant’s materials and to which the
respondents have no defence, is therefore embedded within the body of
evidence.
35
Pertinently, however, Mr Lee conceded that the Judge’s attention had
not been directed specifically to the appellant’s lower level claim which rested
simply on the fact of copying. In our judgment, had that alternative case been
signposted, the trial would have proceeded quite differently. The question of
infringement would have been resolved simply by examining what materials
were in the respondents’ possession and where those materials came from.
There would have been no need for the parties to canvass issues of substantial
reproduction and adaptation, making for a shorter and much more
17
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