Defend Trade Secrets Act Is Enacted

In late April, Congress approved the Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016 ("DTSA" or the "Act") with over-whelming bipartisan majorities. President Obama signed DTSA into law on May 11, and it takes effect immediately.

First introduced in 2014, DTSA failed to progress in the last Congress. However, after its reintroduction in 2015 by Senators Hatch (R-UT) and Koons (D-DE), and the Senate Judiciary Committee held hearings that yielded clarifying amendments and an amendment to protect whistleblowers who have used trade secrets to help prove their claims, Congressional support for the legislation gathered momentum and passage in both houses resulted last month. The fact that it achieved near universal support in the nasty political environment that persists at the Capitol speaks to the widely held perception that a federal trade secrets law was needed at this time.