On April 4, 2016, the US Senate unanimously passed the Defend
Trade Secrets Act of 2016, S. 1890 (DTSA), which amends the
Economic Espionage Act, 18 USC Section 1831 et seq. The
broadly supported bill is intended to provide trade secrets owners
with federal legal protections on par with the federal rights
granted to owners of trademarks, copyrights and patents. For the
first time, the DTSA would establish a uniform national trade
secret protection standard, including the right to file trade
secret suits in federal court. The bill now heads to the House of
Representatives for further consideration, where a similar,
identically titled bill was previously introduced.
Currently, trade secrets are primarily protected according to
state law. A limited existing federal protection for trade secrets
is codified in the Economic Espionage Act, which currently covers
only criminal theft by foreign nationals. This limited protection
fails to cover many instances of
