What You Should Know About The Defend Trade Secrets Act

Nothing passes Congress during an election year. Well, something did: the Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016. In some ways, the act is unexceptional. In other ways, however, it is exceptional. For decades, trade secrets have been the poor stepchild of intellectual property law. Although trade secret law had its beginnings in the Industrial Revolution, until May 2016 it had never been federally codified. We were left instead with inconsistent state laws. By the end of the 20th century, this situation had improved dramatically and state laws took one of two basic forms: the Uniform Trade Secrets Act; or the Restatement of Trade Secrets. In this article, Finnegan partner Patrick J. Coyne discusses important consideration of the recently passed Defend Trade Secrets Act.