## Facts

- Kamin, an inventor and garbage hauler, developed a garbage truck “packer” body using a hydraulically operated “plow” to compress refuse.
- Kamin engaged and paid Kuhnau, a machine shop operator, to supply labor, materials, and shop services to build and develop truck bodies embodying Kamin’s ideas for a marketable unit.
- Kamin disclosed design details and technical know-how to Kuhnau during their collaboration and claimed the disclosures occurred within a confidential relationship.
- Kuhnau later manufactured, sold, and offered for sale similar packer truck bodies on his own account in competition with Kamin.
- Defendants argued the underlying principles were already in the public domain and that their products differed by using their own improvements.
- The trial court found a confidential relationship, found a breach through defendants’ competitive use of the disclosed information, permanently enjoined defendants from unfair competition, and awarded Kamin $19,272.48 in damages.

## Issues

1. Whether the parties’ collaboration created a confidential relationship imposing a duty on defendants not to use Kamin’s disclosed design and development work for defendants’ competitive benefit.
2. Whether defendants’ manufacture and sale of competing packer truck bodies constituted unfair competition based on breach of confidence, notwithstanding claims that relevant mechanical principles were publicly known or that defendants made modifications.
3. Whether the trial court properly granted a permanent injunction and awarded damages for the breach.

## Decision

- The Oregon Supreme Court affirmed the trial court’s decree.
- The court held the evidence supported the finding that a confidential relationship existed during the product-development collaboration.
- The court held defendants breached that relationship by using information and development work obtained through the collaboration to compete with Kamin.
- The court upheld both the permanent injunction and the damages award of $19,272.48.

## Legal Principles

- A confidential relationship may arise from the circumstances of collaborative product development and paid assistance, even without a written secrecy agreement.
- A party who acquires technical information and development know-how in confidence may not exploit it in competition with the confiding party; the wrong is the breach of confidence.
- The fact that some general principles are publicly known does not excuse competitive use of detailed information obtained through a confidential relationship.
- Injunctive relief and monetary damages are available remedies for unfair competition grounded in breach of a confidential relationship.

## Conclusion

The court affirmed equitable and monetary relief because defendants, having obtained Kamin’s design details and development work through a confidential collaborative relationship, breached that confidence by manufacturing and selling competing packer truck bodies.


Kamin v. Kuhnau, 232 Or. 139, 374 P.2d 912 (Or. 1962)