One of the tricky issues that has arisen rather frequently in recent years concerns attempts by intellectual property right owners to expand their rights and remedies so as to cover activities which are said to have been caused by the infringement but which lie downstream of the actual infringement. Are such activities within the scope of the exclusive rights conferred so as to enable the right owner to sue the individual carrying out the downstream activity? Alternatively, might the right owner litigate against the immediate infringer on the basis that his infringement was the "cause" of the downstream activity such as to support a claim for damages in respect of the downstream losses? This article starts with a brief discussion of the reach of process patents into downstream products and then moves into a detailed discussion of the position at common law under the action to protect confidential information.