The Defend Trade Secrets Act: Will the Landmark Waymo v. Uber Case Give It Teeth?
Avery Minor The Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA) was passed with bipartisan support in 2016 to federalize trade secret protection. Previously, only states could authorize these types of suits, leading to dissimilar outcomes as a result of different state laws. Because it is still in its infancy with very little precedence, federal courts have continued to gloss over the significance of the DTSA and address trade secret cases using state law alone. The heavily publicized case involving stolen trade secrets between two prominent technology companies, Waymo v. Uber, has given the court a chance to assert the relevance of the...
Massachusetts Non-Competition Laws: Protecting Trade Secrets or Restricting Commonwealth Innovation?
Gabriella Falcone Non-competition agreements are subject to much debate in the realm of American trade secret law, and this debate is magnified when taken in the context of employment in major technology hubs across the United States. The overwhelming success of Silicon Valley, California technology firms, where non-competition agreements are generally unenforceable, has sparked conversation over whether enforceability in other states is impeding innovation in other major technology hubs. The Massachusetts legislature is attempting to address this issue with two major bills on the enforceability of non-competition agreements in the Commonwealth, which as Massachusetts’ presence in the technology industry continues...
The Growing Concern Regarding US Corporate Trade Secrets
Stephen Anderson Globalization has produced many benefits for United States corporations, but a significant detraction has been the emergence of trade secret theft. As technology advances, trade secret theft has become an even more persistent threat in the general marketplace. There are various ways trade secret theft can occur, but it is increasingly common for the theft to involve cyberspace, especially as these corporations expand into foreign markets. Consequently, Congress has taken a significant interest in curbing trade secret theft, as is evidenced by the various proposals before them today. These proposals offer varying solutions to trade secret theft, which...
The Defend Trade Secrets Act: Arrival of the Trade Secret Trolls?
Stephen Anderson A new bill that is currently facing Congress, the Defend Trade Secrets Act, is aimed at creating a federal private cause of action under the Economic Espionage Act of 1996 (EEA). It is a bill that will, if passed, expand the EEA to provide federal jurisdiction for the theft of trade secrets. There is no question as to the degree of importance the protection of trade secrets is to United States businesses and society at large. The question is whether the well-intentioned DTSA will actually do more harm than good. There are a substantial number of legal professionals...
Saving Trade Secret Disclosures on the Internet Through Sequential Preservation
Elizabeth A. Rowe When, for instance, an employee discloses an employer’s trade secrets to the public over the Internet, does our current trade secret framework appropriately address the consequences of that disclosure? What ought to be the rule which governs whether the trade secret owner has lost not only the protection status for the secret, but any remedies against use by third parties? Should the ease with which the Internet permits instant and mass disclosure of secrets be taken into consideration in assessing the fairness of a rule which calls for immediate loss of the trade secret upon disclosure? The...
An Exploration of Rights Management Technologies Used in the Music Industry
Nika Aldrich On November 19, 2005, the Attorney General of the State of Texas filed a lawsuit against Sony BMG. This action was followed promptly by class action lawsuits in California and New York. Nine actions from New York, one from California, and one from New Mexico were involved in the consolidation action of April 2006. Elsewhere, a complaint to the Federal Government was filed in Italy against Sony BMG. With this flurry of lawsuits, the term, “Digital Rights Management” was thrust into the court system. As the consolidated action settles and the term “Digital Rights Management” makes its way...
Criminal Consequences of Trade Secret Misappropriation: Does the Economic Espionage Act Insulate Trade Secrets From Theft and Render Civil Remedies Obsolete?
Mark D. Seltzer; Angela A. Burns The enactment of the Economic Espionage Act of 1996 (“EEA”) was greeted with great fanfare as an unprecedented and broad federal attack on foreign and domestic trade secret misappropriation. Negligent, even inadvertent conversions of trade secrets seemed subject to criminal prosecution in the broad wake of the statute. The statute’s draconian criminal penalties for individual and corporate offenders alike, coupled with its license to the Government to seek protective orders, civil injunctive relief, and forfeiture, were viewed as the preferred remedy for the victim of trade secret misappropriation. Yet the plain language of the...