Protecting Trade Secrets Now Front, Center And National

Most employers understand, in this era where information moves so quickly and critically sensitive commercial information is very easy to move, that protecting trade secrets is more important than ever. In fact, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee reports that annual losses to the American economy caused by trade secret loss are over $300 billion in revenue and 2.1 million in jobs. Against this backdrop, Congress has undertaken recent efforts to enact federal trade secret legislation to impose a federal protection scheme previously left primarily to state law.

Initially, these preliminary efforts at federal legislation were not successful. However, on April 27, 2016, the U.S. House passed the Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA) by a vote of 410-2. The DTSA had already passed the Senate and now awaits executive approval, which President Obama has promised to supply. While there are many aspects to this anticipated new law, we focus here on what employers need to know and