Industrial Espionage And The Defend Trade Secrets Act

American corporations are facing an ever increasing threat of misappropriation of their valuable trade secrets through industrial espionage, defined as the theft of a company's trade secrets by an actor intending to convert the trade secret to the economic benefit of a competitor. Indeed, former Attorney General Eric Holder has said that "[t]here are only two categories of companies affected by trade-secret theft: those that know they've been compromised and those that don't know yet." (See Protection of Trade Secrets: Overview of Current Law and Legislation). With this "significant and growing threat" of industrial espionage by competitors, current and former employees, and even foreign intelligence services, American companies must be vigilant and employ all available measures to protect against misappropriation of valuable trade secrets. (See Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive, Foreign Spies Stealing U.S. Economic Secrets in Cyberspace). In the