President Obama signed into law yesterday the Defend Trade
Secrets Act, establishing for the first time an ostensibly uniform
national trade secret protection standard.
Under the DTSA, a party may bring a civil lawsuit in federal
court to enforce any trade secret "related to a product or
service used in, or intended for use in, interstate or foreign
commerce." The DTSA does not preempt state law, and
therefore parties will retain the option of enforcing interstate
(as well as intrastate) trade secrets in state court.
Intrastate trade secrets, or trade secrets that are not "used
in, or intended for use in, interstate or foreign commerce,"
will continue to be enforceable under state law. A party has
three years from discovery of a misappropriation (or from when
misappropriation reasonably should have been discovered) to file
suit under the DTSA. The law sets a maximum penalty of $5
million or three times the value of the misappropriated trade
secret, whichever is
