ABC Financial Services Limited (the "Company") recently invented the new electronic payment system and method (the "Invention") and intended to promote the Invention to some retail shops for day-to-day transaction in Hong Kong. The Company had adopted the brand name "M-PAY" and established a website "www.mpay.com.hk". As the user experiences of both retail shops and customers were enhanced because of its highly advanced electronic payment technique, the brand name become popular to the public.

In order to give information the retail shop owners how to use "M-PAY", the Company provided the manual of the Invention which contained the major composition of the Invention to all retail shop owners. Every manual provided to each retail shop owners labelled "Confidential & Trade Secret". However, one retail shop owner, without authorization, disclose the major composition of the Invention at its own website.

The major competitor of the Company (the "Competitor") read and copied all the details of the major composition of the Invention from website and then invented an optimization method for electronic payment system. The Competitor filed the patent application for their optimization method and adopted the brand name "N-PAY" and established a website "www.npay.com.hk".

REQUIRED:

Identify the issues of intellectual property (IP) rights and critically evaluate the legal implication of IP rights to address the identified issues. Make appropriate assumptions where necessary. (Note: Refer to relevant case law, where appropriate, to support the evaluation of the case)