Happy Anniversary, DTSA: The Defend Trade Secrets Act At Five

On May 11, 2016, the Defend Trade Secrets Act ("DTSA") was signed into law with sweeping bipartisan support, passing unanimously in the Senate, and by a vote of 410-2 in the House.¹ In the current political climate, passing any significant piece of legislation by such a lopsided vote seems almost unthinkable. The Act's popularity can be attributed to an objective that seemingly everybody could agree upon—protecting the intellectual property of United States companies—and the crucial decision to create a federal statute that largely mirrored existing state law.

Three key goals of the statute were: (1) to create a federal civil remedy, bringing the rights of trade secret owners "into alignment with those long enjoyed by owners of other forms of intellectual property," (2) to promote uniformity by providing for a "single, national standard for trade secret misappropriation with clear rules and predictability for everyone involved," (3) and to better address the